When the Shadows Reach Gotham
by Raberba girl
Summary: Riku Crescent & Timothy Drake first meet as two of the few children in attendance at a Wayne gala. Years later, Red Robin encounters a young man in a black coat who seems strangely familiar beneath the hood and the blindfold. (No slash)
1. Chapter 1

When the Shadows Reach Gotham

(rough draft)

A crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Inspired by my friend breezy-cheezy (Medli45)

Summary: Riku Crescent & Timothy Drake first meet as two of the few children in attendance at a Wayne gala. Years later, Red Robin encounters a young man in a black coat who seems strangely familiar beneath the hood and the blindfold.

A/N: **This fic uses my "Crescent family" headcanon for Riku. See my fanfiction index ( indexkhcanon/ ) for those stories** , they're pretty much any of the ones where Riku's a major character and not shipped with Naminé. **The only difference here is that the Crescents live in Midgar, rather than Destiny Islands like they do in my KH fics.**

(To those who are worried, the "training" was not very hands-on and basically consisted of flirting lessons, plus some lectures and reading material that started out awkward and then got progressively more confusing and boring.)

Part 1 (Chapter 1.1)

Eight-year-old Riku had heard horror stories about Gotham being one of the worst cities in the multiverse, but it didn't seem that bad, though that might have well been because he and his father never actually entered the city limits.

Sephiroth's ship landed in a field of wildflowers outside of town, near the wealthy neighborhood where the gala was to be held. Riku had hoped that Zack would be able to come, but the SOLDIER had been busy with other duties. One of the people who'd been assigned to escort them instead was, luckily, nice enough to help Riku with his tie, so he was able to emerge from his quarters without worrying as much about being criticized for looking less than perfect.

He waited for about an hour while his father worked at the ship's computers. Then Sephiroth sent the system into hibernation, rose to his feet, and strode toward the exit hatch without even looking around for his son. "We're leaving, Riku."

"Yes, Father," Riku said, both he and their honor guard scrambling to catch up.

Once the car started moving, Sephiroth surveyed the boy. "What is your mission for tonight, Riku?" he prompted.

"Get Bruce Wayne to agree to the Mako Deal," Riku recited obediently. He knew that was the only reason he had been brought along. As Sephiroth's youngest son, he stood the best chance of manipulating Wayne, who was known to have a soft spot for children.

"Don't fail me, Riku."

"I won't, Father," Riku replied, because there was no other acceptable response, even though anxiety was twisting in his stomach. He didn't feel prepared for this, and the training he'd undergone for this particular mission had only made it worse. Even if the uglier rumors about why an unmarried billionaire had taken two orphaned boys into his home were false, Riku was still not at all confident in his acting skills. If he was very lucky, Wayne would not be a pervert _and_ would find Riku's natural bluntness more charming than an awkward attempt at a cutsey act.

Riku was not a particularly lucky person, though.

The rest of the drive was silent, but short. Wayne Manor was already lit up and bustling, the gates open and cars filling the long drive as chauffeurs and various other staff members went about their work or waited for their employers to call on their services.

Sephiroth stepped out of the car like a king and glided up the front steps, Riku trying hard to look graceful as he struggled to keep up. The front door was opened by a smiling man in a uniform, and then came the shine and polish of the elegant front hall, with a glimmering chandelier overhead and live orchestral music wafting through the air along with the chatter and laughter of all the guests.

Riku tried to keep close enough to his father to not lose him without being outright clingy or otherwise undignified. It was a little difficult because, even though people tended to shy away from Sephiroth's intimidating presence, Riku was more vulnerable.

"Oooohh, who is this little _cutie_?" one woman cooed, bending down to pinch his cheeks.

Riku jerked his head back and injected as much frost into his voice as he could. "Pardon me, madam."

"Is that your daddy there?"

"Yes, Sephiroth Crescent of Shinra is my father."

"How _delightful_! Come over here so I can introduce you to my daughter!"

After Riku had been shown to a teenage girl who'd licked her lips and half-playfully told him to call her in about six or seven years, he managed to escape and tried to look for his father. Instead, he was waylaid again and again, sometimes by entire groups of people, who seemed either enchanted or predatory because of his young age, ethereal good looks, and mature manner.

"Such _lovely_ hair! What an unusual color, and the _texture_... Forgive me for prying, but are you a meta?"

"A little bit," Riku said uncomfortably. They didn't use the term 'metahuman' back in Gaia, and even if they did, he wasn't sure he qualified. His parents certainly did, but he didn't seem to have inherited any of their extraordinary traits other than sheer, useless beauty from his father.

"Ooohh, what's your power?"

Riku didn't have any powers like the superheroes in this world did (except that his hair never tangled or looked greasy, if you could call something like that a 'power'), but one of his parents' rules was to hide all potential weaknesses. He smiled coolly. "Let's hope you never have to find out, ma'am."

The woman jerked back with a squealing, slightly nervous laugh.

"If you'll excuse me," Riku said, and made his escape.

o.o.o.o.o

Tim probably wasn't supposed to be at the gala, because his parents had canceled at the last minute and were now on a flight to Cairo. But they _had_ RSVP'd, and he'd unpinned the invitation from the bulletin board to take with him as proof of entry, and he was experienced enough now to dress himself presentably without help, and it would be so lonely being alone all night otherwise, especially watching Wayne Manor aglow with festivity in the distance... There would be a lot of temporary staff, too. If Tim played his cards right, he'd be able to get into the party, maybe even find a hot meal, without anyone realizing he was there unaccompanied.

He put boots and a raincoat on to protect his fancy suit during the long walk in the dark, and carried his dress shoes. Once near the turn of the road that led to Wayne Manor, he stashed his protective gear under a bush, then walked through the open front gates. With so many hired servants milling around the yard, he was able to blend in until a large group of guests started making their way to the front doors. Tim casually fell in with them, and didn't even have to show his parents' invitation to be admitted into the house.

Once inside, he was able to break away and disappear into the background, which he was really good at. He spent a while sitting behind a couch on the edge of the ballroom, just listening to the musicians play and basking in the company of _people_. When he got hungry, he nibbled at a few of the gross hors d'oeuvres, but knew that there would be more appetizing food in the kitchen. It wasn't difficult to slip inside, where a team of caterers was at work.

Tim sidled to the refrigerator and found a wealth of leftovers in neatly stacked and labeled glass containers. He took one of (likely homemade) macaroni and cheese, went over to the microwave, pried off the plastic lid, and put the rest of the container inside to cook.

While he was waiting for the microwave to finish, a thin young man in an apron hurried over to him. "Are you Jason Wayne?"

Since Tim had no business being in Bruce Wayne's kitchen otherwise and also happened to bear a passing resemblance to both of the billionaire's wards, he said, "Yes."

"Could you run and get your dad? We have a little situation here."

"Uh...okay." Tim turned and nearly ran right into someone. He paled when he realized that it was Bruce Wayne's butler, who had probably overheard and would know that Tim was certainly not Jason Wayne.

The gentleman, however, simply raised an eyebrow at him, then stealthily slipped him a cookie as he stepped past the boy and addressed the young caterer. "Master Wayne is occupied at the moment, but I am his butler and can address any concern you may have."

"Uh- All right, well, we made, _I_ made a little mistake with the soup, and I was wondering..."

Tim gently backed away, got his macaroni out of the microwave, and escaped along with a spoon, a napkin, and the cookie.

o.o.o.o.o

Social events were always bad enough, but Bruce particularly hated hosting them. So many strangers and unpleasant acquaintances swarming over his home, threatening his secrets and wearing at his patience; worries about how Jason was handling it, worries about how the city would be faring in Batman's absence...

Every once in a while, he would run into someone with a pleasant personality and intellectually stimulating conversation, but that was pretty rare. In fact, the one time it had happened in the past six months, the pleasant and stimulating person in question had been seven years old at the time.

Timothy Drake would be eight now. His parents were supposed to have come to this event, but had later backed out, which was a shame, since Bruce had rather looked forward to seeing Tim again. The boy was much too serious, and Bruce had come so close to getting the child to smile last time when he'd started performing magic tricks. He hadn't quite managed it, and he'd hoped for a second chance tonight. If nothing else, he could have sent the boy off to play video games with Jason and give both of them a break from a party they surely found even more tiresome than he did.

"Hey, Dad, I told Victoria Winchester to find somewhere else to make out with her bodyguard, but she called me swear jar names kept making out with him, anyway, and I was gonna punch them both but I don't want to get benched tonight, so I'm telling you, but if you don't get them out of the library, then I'm gonna go back and punch them after all, and then I'll _still_ go out tonight, even if you bench me. So this is me asking you _nicely_ to please get Victoria Winchester and her man toy out of the library, or I'll do it myself." Jason put his hands on his hips and gave Bruce a challenging look.

"I'll take care of it," Bruce promised.

He did, mostly by sweeping into the library and being so obnoxious that the nineteen-year-old heiress pouted and stormed off, dragging her bodyguard behind her. Jason blew out a relieved breath and dropped onto his favorite couch with the three books he was reading.

Bruce was about to leave his son to it when something caught his eye. It wasn't much, an ordinary person would probably have missed it, but the pattern on that inch of fabric sticking out from behind the opposite couch matched the napkins Alfred had chosen for this event. Bruce went to look, wondering if Victoria Winchester wasn't the only guest who had chosen to wander outside the unspoken bounds of the party.

What he was expecting to see was a plate and napkin carelessly tossed on the floor rather than left in a more appropriate place or given to a waiter. What he was not expecting to see was an eight-year-old boy staring up at him like a caught mouse.

"Why, it's Timmy Drake!" Bruce exclaimed, the surprise in his Brucie tone genuine. "Ha ha! Looking for a quiet spot to relax in, chum?"

"I- Yes," the child said sheepishly, clutching a mostly-empty Pyrex container to his chest. Bruce had to suppress his smile at the idea of Tim boldly waltzing into his kitchen to appropriate food out of the refrigerator as if he lived here.

"I thought your parents couldn't make it tonight!"

"Uh...they...changed their minds?" The boy cleared his throat. "They changed their minds. They're around...somewhere. There's a lot of people here, you might not even see them."

"Glad to hear they made it after all!" By this time, Jason had scrambled to the couch and was now peering down at Tim in curiosity. "Hey!" Bruce said, "Wanna see a magic trick?"

Jason rolled his eyes, but Tim stood up eagerly, his face intent with interest despite the lack of a smile. "Yes, please."

"All-righty, then. Prepare to be amazed!"

Tim still did not smile, but he watched very closely and asked for several repeats of the trick. At last, he put his hands on his head and exclaimed, "I know the card is in your sleeve, I know you're waving your hands as a diversion, I _know_ it and I'm _watching_ , but I still can't see you pull it out of your sleeve!" He lowered his hands and told Bruce seriously, "You're very good."

"Why, thank you, Timmy," Bruce said, as Jason snorted in amusement.

Alfred soon came in with a pointed remark about neglected guests, so Bruce returned to the party. Minutes later, he was approached by Sephiroth Crescent, a man with frosty green eyes and improbably long silver hair who practically screamed 'meta.' Bruce had a hard time keeping up the Brucie act as he smiled brightly through gritted teeth and gripped a hand that _looked_ smooth and refined but sported subtle calluses that indicated frequent use of a sword.

"Crescent, you say? Give me a minute, give me a minute, it's on the tip of my tongue," Brucie insisted, snapping his fingers as if trying to jog his memory even though he knew perfectly well that this was Shinra's latest attempt to make him cave on the Mako Deal.

"I'm a visitor from Gaia. I know you find it in your best interests to trust your company with more capable men," Sephiroth said, "but perhaps Mr. Lucius Fox might have mentioned my employer's name to you once or twice?"

"Gaia, Gaia, that's that place where they use-? OH! Shinra, that's the one!" Bruce clapped his hands together, acting very pleased with himself for finally 'remembering.' "So _you're_ this Sephiroth fellow I've heard tell about! Well, happy to have you here, buddy. Oh, waiter! C'mere; Crescent, you've gotta try-"

"No, thank you," the man said, waving the waiter away. "Mr. Wayne, there is someone I'd like you to meet." He turned and glided through the crowd like a fish through water, and Bruce was so busy trying not to glare at the meta's back that he didn't notice the child until Sephiroth turned to face him again. "Mr. Wayne, this is my son, Riku."

Bruce stared down at the kid, who had a slightly warmer, more accessible version of his father's elegant, fey beauty. "Hello, Mr. Wayne," the boy said politely.

Bruce remembered to be Brucie. "Well, hello there, chum! Call me Bruce; nice to meet you!"

"It's a pleasure."

"Riku, keep Mr. Wayne amused," Sephiroth commanded. "I'll be back for you later." He glided away.

Riku looked up with slight apprehension in his eyes, and Bruce made an effort to conceal his sudden rage. Though it wasn't clear exactly what the boy's instructions or his father's expectations were, it still angered Bruce to see a child being used as a tool for business dealings at all. "I bet you're pretty bored at this stuffy grown-up party, huh. Oh, I know! The Drake boy's here, too; Tim Drake, he's just about your age! Let me introduce you to each other."

TBC

A/N: This story was inspired by my friend Breezy, who initially drew a crossover sketch of baby Riku & Tim meeting at a boring grown-up party, then went on to draw more. X3 Both of us are excited about the idea, so I'm taking off two weeks from my project _The Birds Who Smile_ to write it. :)

And to clarify again, Sephiroth isn't expecting any son of his to be demeaned by _actually_ subjecting himself to a human with gross intentions, but he _is_ expecting an eight-year-old to masterfully manipulate an adult in order to achieve a mission objective. So, like, it's still abusive, but not _as_ abusive as it might seem.

The first chapter of this fic ended up being over 7,000 words, which is way too long for my taste, so I split it into three parts. I have no idea how long the story will be after that; hopefully not more than, like, five chapters! I need to get back to TBWS fairly soon. X''D


	2. Chapter 2

**When the Shadows Reach Gotham (rough draft)**

 **A crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Part 2 (Chapter 1.2)**

Bruce made his way back to the library, but it was empty by then. So he went through the rest of the party, trailed by Riku and held up by an exasperating number of people who kept getting his attention and sucking him into tiresome conversations. He ended up having to consult the security cameras, and nearly laughed in admiration because he realized that he would have never found Tim otherwise. The boy had somehow made his way all the way up to the empty solarium on the third floor, where he was currently playing the piano.

"Aha! There's our little rascal. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to wait here for me to bring him down?"

"I'd like to stay with you, Mr. Wayne."

"All right," Bruce said, slightly wary at the wording. "This way to the elevator."

As soon as they started their ascent, he regretted not taking the stairs. Riku, who had apparently shed his tie and jacket during the search for Tim, now smiled shyly up at Bruce and took his hand. "It's very quiet in here, with just the two of us."

"Good Lord, what happened to your tie?!" Bruce burst out. "And your shirt's a mess, let's fix that up." It was a bit of a struggle, but he managed to get Riku's top two shirt buttons fastened again, and did not miss the boy's quiet, relieved exhalation. Then frustration took over as he worked at the sleeves and realized that the buttons on the child-sized shirt were too small for his fingers to maneuver properly, no matter how hard he tried. _'And here it is, the great Batman failing to button a shirtsleeve,'_ he thought sourly.

"I can get those," Riku said, and did up his own sleeves.

"Much better," Bruce said once the boy was tidy again. "Now, let's go find young Mr. Drake."

In the solarium, Tim was so intent on picking out the right chords for Johann Strauss's "Radetzky March, Op. 228" that he didn't realize he was no longer alone until Bruce cleared his throat. The boy leaped up and backed away, apologizing.

"No worries, chum, no harm done! Say, Timmy, here's someone I want you to meet! This is Riku Crescent, son of some big-shot electrician over in Gaia."

"He's- My father's a SOLDIER," Riku said, looking a little stunned as if he'd never heard anyone speak so flippantly about his father. "He works for the Shinra Electric Power Company as a military officer."

"Is it normal for energy companies in your world to have their own military forces?" Tim asked, putting his finger on the exact reason Bruce would never let Wayne Enterprises do any business with Shinra.

For a moment, Riku looked like he didn't know what to say to this, then he raised his head with a very haughty look he had clearly learned from his father. "I suppose it would be difficult for someone from such a backwards little world to understand."

Well, this was not going as well as Bruce had hoped. "HA HA, well, we'd better get back downstairs before we're missed! Come along, boys."

He had no idea what to do with the kids once they stepped out of the elevator, and wasn't sure how to react when Riku took his hand again. "Mr. Wayne, do you have any drinks here that are suitable for people my age?"

"Why, certainly," Bruce said, noticing Tim slip away from the corner of his eye. "There might not be much non-alcoholic stuff out on the floor, but I've got plenty in the kitchen. Do you want juice, milk, soda...?"

"If you have any lemonade, that would be nice."

"Let's go see." Bruce was starting to get waylaid by guests again, but Riku was patient, and the two of them eventually ended up sipping lemonade together on a sofa in the front parlor.

Almost immediately, a couple of ladies plunked themselves down into Bruce's lap, giggling and barely hiding their hopes of having a threesome with him later that night. While Bruce wouldn't have been interested even at the best of times and would have only even considered humoring them for his Brucie act, being watched by a slightly curious eight-year-old made him even more uncomfortable than usual. He had to get creative about backwards insults about the women's looks until they finally caught on, got offended, and stormed out of his lap in a huff. He tried not to sigh too noticeably as he leaned back and took a long draught of his lemonade.

It seemed that Riku was now free to make his move. Although the boy had apparently taken the hint that Bruce's interest in children was of an innocent nature, he had merely shifted gears rather than given up. He moved closer to Bruce and drew up his legs with the lemonade sheltered against his chest in a childish pose, smiling as he leaned his head back against the sofa. "You're pretty popular, huh, Mr. Bruce."

"A little too popular, maybe," Bruce mumbled, edging back a little.

"It's because you're rich. People like rich people."

"That is certainly true."

"I think I know how you can get even richer, Mr. Bruce."

Bruce set down his glass. "Riku," he asked gently, "did your father ask you to talk to me about Wayne Enterprises making a deal with Shinra?"

The boy froze.

"Listen, I'm very flattered by Shinra's interest, but the people I trust to run my company don't think it's a good idea, and even a smart young man like you isn't going to change my mind. Frankly, I'm not very happy with your father for using you as a pawn, Riku."

The boy swallowed. Then he straightened up and put the lemonade aside. "Mr. Wayne, I really think you ought to make the deal. It will benefit both of our companies, not just Shinra. My father showed me the reports-"

"Riku." Bruce let a tiny bit of Batman into his voice. "If your father feels so strongly about this, he ought to tell me himself."

The boy was starting to look a little panicked. "Mr. Wayne, please. Please make this deal, I _promise_ you won't regret it."

Bruce stared. "Riku...is someone going to hurt you if you don't convince me to do this?"

The boy's eyes widened. Then that haughty look returned, a perfect mask of composure sliding into place. "I simply feel that the Mako Deal is in your best interests, Mr. Wayne, but if you are too stubborn to see reason, I suppose there's no point in wasting my time."

"Riku-"

But the boy was already up, not as graceful as his father but disappearing into the crowd just as quickly.

o.o.o.o.o

Tim was starting to get a little bored, but since his only options were to stay at the party or trek home to his cold, dark, empty, lonely house, he found himself reluctant to leave. He wandered until he discovered that there was some kind of security system preventing people from entering the doors at the end of the staircase on the second floor.

Tim went all the way to the other wing to confirm that it was closed off, too, and was currently trying to determine exactly how many other security layers there were in addition to the keypad and what looked like a fingerprint scanner. He heard pounding footsteps, a sudden stop, and then, a minute later, the sort of tight, harsh breathing that sounded like the person was trying not to cry.

Cautiously, Tim descended the first flight of stairs and found that rude boy with the weird hair curled up by the wall on the landing, his face hidden against his knees. "Are you okay?"

The boy leaped to his feet, and Tim was startled by the way his eyes were glowing. Then the weird light faded, and Riku said roughly, "Oh, it's _you_."

"Did something bad happen?"

"No," Riku snapped.

"Why were you crying?"

"I wasn't crying, you disgusting Earth maggot!"

"Don't call me names!"

"You're right, I shouldn't waste my time and energy on a worthless little human."

Tim felt angry heat flash through his body. "Metas aren't any better than regular humans just because they have powers."

Riku was silent.

"Batman can beat Superman even though he doesn't have any powers at all," Tim went on.

"I _know_. I know that we- That metas aren't better than humans. I just-" Riku sagged against the wall and covered his eyes with his fist. "I'm just upset," he whispered.

Tim ventured closer. "Did someone call you names because you're a meta?"

"No..." Riku dropped his hand and sighed deeply, leaning his head back against the wall. "I'm not even a meta," he said bitterly. "I can't do anything right. I don't have any of the powers Mother and Father say I'm supposed to, I can't even do it right when I don't have to use any powers at all."

"What did you try to do? Maybe I can help."

Riku barked out a laugh. "Can you make Bruce Wayne sign a deal with Shinra?"

Tim blinked. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

"That's not the _point_. The point is that I'm only here for _one_ reason, I had _one_ job to do, but I failed and Father is going to be furious with me and I..." He sank back to the floor, resting his arm across his knees and shoving his other hand into his hair. "What's the point? I'm never going to be able to please my parents. I wish..." He squeezed his eyes shut and whispered, "I wish I didn't have to live with them anymore."

Tim fidgeted. "Maybe...maybe you can come live with me," he offered. "For a little while, just a few weeks. My parents are gone, so they won't even notice." He considered. "I bet if you slept in the attic and I brought you food, you could even keep living there when they come home, and they still won't notice. Even when the housekeepers come, they never go up to the attic."

Riku was staring at him. " _No one_ would notice? Who takes care of you when your parents are gone?"

Tim shrugged. "I'm old enough to take care of myself."

Riku was pretty sure this wasn't true, since all the other eight-year-olds he knew had nice parents and acted like they wouldn't even know how to feed themselves if they didn't. _He_ could take care of himself, but that was because his parents and their children were special. Tim didn't look particularly special. "Are you a...a meta?" he asked.

"No. Are you?"

Riku looked down at his own hands. "I'm supposed to be, but...I don't think I am."

"Your eyes were glowing earlier. Human eyes don't do that."

Riku stared. "They were?!"

"Yeah, when you were mad. Or maybe scared."

Riku looked thoughtful. He squeezed his eyes shut and looked like he was concentrating hard. Then he looked at Tim again and asked hopefully, "Is my hair glowing?"

"No," Tim said cautiously. "Maybe I just can't see it because it's not dark out here."

"What about my eyes, are they glowing?"

"No."

Riku's face fell. "See? I'm a failure. Father can make his entire body glow, even when it's not dark. He can fly, too. I can't even manifest a _feather_ , much less a whole wing."

"It's okay if you're not a meta, you know," Tim said.

Riku stared at him. "My mother is an alien. My father is the best SOLDIER in Shinra's history. I _have_ to be a meta."

"There are plenty of meta parents who have normal kids. That's fine. There are even more normal parents who have meta kids. That's fine, too. That's what I meant earlier - being a meta or not being a meta doesn't make you any better or worse a person."

Riku looked like he was thinking about this for a long time. "I think...you're right," he said slowly. "But my parents..." He swallowed. "They would think you're wrong."

" _They're_ wrong, then."

Riku looked like it was getting a little hard to breathe. "No. No- My father is _Sephiroth_. My mother is Jenova, the Calamity From the Skies. They...I can't-"

Tim closed the distance remaining between them and patted his shoulder, then sat down next to him. "It's okay." He waited for a while until the other boy got control of himself.

Riku finally murmured, "I can't stay in your house. Mother and Father would find me, and hurt you to make me come back with them." He smiled sadly. "But thank you for offering, Timothy. I'm glad you did."

"You're welcome," Tim said, his heart falling at the news that he wouldn't get to have a friend relieve the loneliness at his house after all. "You can call me Tim."

"All right."

"So, Riku...wanna help me crack the second-floor security system?"

"Huh?"

It turned out that Riku didn't know much about electronics, but he and Tim both still had fun trying until the doors were suddenly flung open from the other side, and Jason Wayne glared at them. "What, you've got nothing better to do, so you're trying to break into the _clearly private_ family wing?"

"Sorry," Tim and Riku muttered sheepishly in unison.

Jason rolled his eyes, then glanced at them appraisingly. "Wanna play video games in the theater?"

"Yeah!"

"All right."

TBC

A/N: To clarify, Sephiroth & Jenova here are more like business partners than anything else; their children were all conceived and physically developed in laboratories.


	3. Chapter 3

**When the Shadows Reach Gotham (rough draft)**

 **A Batman / Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy VII crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Part 3 (Chapter 1.3)**

They went to the kitchen first. Tim was putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave and Jason was in the pantry, loading Riku's arms with packaged snacks, when the first screams started up. The caterers and all three boys looked around in alarm.

A shadow darted across the floor. Tim stared as the unnatural black blob whizzed erratically back and forth, then stopped and began to shudder up through the tiles, manifesting as a small, vaguely humanoid creature with insect-like antennae and creepy glowing eyes.

"No!" Riku shouted, dropping the snacks, "Gotham's not-!" He gave his head a hard shake and then dove for a rolling pin on the counter, bashing viciously at the shadow creature until it vanished in a puff of smoke. A few small items were expelled from the spot it had been, the shiny gold lumps landing with metallic clinking sounds and the soft green ball bouncing across the floor.

More Shadows were emerging now. This time, even though Tim couldn't seem to do anything except stand there and stare stupidly, Jason joined Riku in pounding the monsters into oblivion. It didn't seem to matter how many they killed, though; more and more kept appearing. Most of the caterers had fled by now, but one woman hadn't gotten out in time, and a cluster of Shadows caught her.

She started screaming. She kept screaming as one of the creatures plunged its clawed hand straight into her chest and dug out what looked like a blazing little star. The woman let out one last, agonized screech, then went limp. Right in front of the boys' horrified eyes, the woman's body crumpled into a chalk-white, boneless, swaying husk, and the bright light that had been extracted from her body turned black and morphed into a Shadow.

These creatures weren't monsters, or at least, they hadn't always been. They were people. They had _used_ to be people, but they weren't anymore.

Now Tim was screaming, too, barely noticing that Riku and Jason had closed ranks to defend him.

He finally snapped out of it when he felt a sharp pain slash across his lower back. He stumbled, then screamed again when he realized that a Shadow had managed to sneak past his protectors and claw at him. It was raising its hand-thing for another strike, and Tim knew he should dodge, but he felt woozy as blood streamed down his legs.

Jason swore explosively, and Riku snatched Tim out of the way. Then he grabbed one of the green balls that had been rolling across the floor and shoved it at Tim's wound. The little boy screamed again in anticipation of more pain, but the feel of the green ball bursting against his flesh actually felt really good, instantly soothing away the pain, knitting torn flesh together, and sending a flash of sweet energy sweeping through Tim's body.

"What the hell did you do?!" Jason yelled, slashing at the Shadow with a pair of large kitchen knives until it disappeared into a puff of smoke.

"They drop munny and HP balls when you defeat them," Riku explained in a rush. "Come on, Tim, we have to get out of here."

"Money and _what_ balls?!" Jason yelled as they ran.

"They're healing orbs!" Riku shouted back.

"I need a weapon," Tim panted, ashamed now that he'd just stood there uselessly while the others had fought, and also embarrassed that he was having trouble keeping up with the more athletic boys who were frantically dragging him along.

They reached the foyer and stopped dead for a moment at the horrific sight of swarms of Shadows chasing screaming, terrified party guests, catching most of them, ripping star-like hearts out of their chests and turning them into more Shadows. From the sound of it, the same thing was happening in the ballroom and down the hall, and even outside. It looked like a bloodless massacre. Neither Tim nor Riku blamed Jason for bursting into a litany of profanity.

Then Bruce Wayne came bounding out of the billiard room, wielding a sword that looked like it had probably spent the past fifty years hanging on a wall. The man's face was that of a hardened soldier rather than an idiotic socialite. "Jason, downstairs," he thundered, and the boy leaped to obey.

Jason paused only to report at his guardian, "They turn people into shadow-monsters like them, Riku says the green things heal, it worked on Tim." Then he was racing for the stairs.

Bruce seized the remaining two boys and hauled them back the way they'd come. "Where are you taking us?" Riku demanded.

"Panic room."

"Locks mean nothing to them! You can't keep them out unless you use magic!"

"My panic room's got magical wards on it."

Riku stared, too surprised to resist being towed into the garage. Bruce stabbed at a button and pressed his palm against the sensor that was immediately revealed. A hatch in the floor opened, and Bruce swung both boys down below as easily as if they barely weighed anything. "I won't let them hurt you," he promised in a dark voice before locking them in.

Tim and Riku stared up at the closed hatch, then at each other. After a moment, Riku raised a slightly shaking hand and began to move slowly around the perimeter. "Huh," he said in surprise. "He really meant it about the wards."

"Riku," Tim said in a small voice, "have you seen those things before?"

Riku sighed. "They're called Shadows. They're creatures made from the darkness in people's hearts. If they infect a world and multiply enough, they can drag the world into darkness."

"...How long does it take for that to happen?" Tim asked.

Riku looked at him and realized how scared he was. "It's okay, it usually takes at least a few years to get that bad," he said. "Sometimes a lot longer. It depends on how many people have a lot of darkness in their hearts. This is the first time any Heartless have appeared on Prime Earth that I know about, which means the infection is new. It probably won't be for a long time, Tim."

The other boy swallowed. "This is Gotham City. A lot of people have lots and lots of darkness in their hearts here."

They were both quiet for a while. Riku finally looked around for a distraction. "Let's look around and see if there's any food." The panic room - which was more like a panic suite - consisted of a primary room with a small couch, several foldable chairs of various designs, a kitchenette along one wall well-stocked with bottled water and non-perishable food, and two screens that both seemed to double as a TV and computer. There was another room that could be partitioned off and contained several folded cots and stacks of bedding. There was a bathroom with two toilets and a shower stall, and a storage room of similar size that contained more food and tons of other supplies and gadgets.

"Looks like we'll be okay even if we're trapped here for a while," Riku said.

"Yeah," Tim murmured, then gave a tremulous smile. "At least we're not alone."

They tried watching TV, playing video games, playing one of the board games from the closet, and even sleeping, but both of them were jittery and couldn't seem to settle down. The longest they stayed on any one activity was when Tim found a book he recognized and read some of it out loud to Riku. They were both huddled silently together on the couch when, what felt like days later but was actually (according to the digital screens) not even four hours, an electronic voice came out of a speaker and startled them both.

 _"0 threats detected. Please select course of action. ... 0 threats detected. Please select course of action. ... 0 threats detected. Please select course of action..."_

The boys stared at each other, then scrambled off the sofa and hurried to the small screen on the wall by the entry/exit panel. A message was displayed there:

 _1 - Disengage panic room security_

 _2 - Refresh panic room security_

After talking it over, the boys finally decided to risk checking on the situation outside. They got weapons from the storage room, then went back to the entry/exit panel, where Tim pressed the numeral 1. There were some whirring and clicking sounds, then the hatch slid open. "Let me go first," Riku said. "I've had training."

He climbed up the ladder and looked around. The garage was empty and silent, so he called down to Tim, who came up to join him. The boys cautiously made their way into the house.

There were no Shadows in sight, but the destruction was eerie. Things were smashed; food and drinks were spilled; ladies' fancy shoes were scattered across the floor, and although there wasn't nearly as much blood as there ought to be after such violence, an occasional gruesome stain marred the carpet and walls. Tim worked very hard not to cry.

There wasn't a single person in sight, either living or dead.

"Let's check upstairs," Riku whispered.

One of the wings was still locked, but the doors to the other were wide open. The children went through all the rooms on that side, but although there wasn't nearly as much destruction here, there was still no sign of life. They continued on to the third floor, which was completely undisturbed.

Just as they were returning to the second floor, they heard a commotion below. Riku grabbed Tim and shoved him behind him. "Get ready to run," he hissed. Tim nodded, unable to speak, and gripped the staff-like weapon he held hard in both hands.

When they edged around the corner of the banister, they saw that the Shadows had not returned - the foyer was now filled with people in soldier uniforms, obeying the orders of an authoritative-sounding young man with spiky black hair.

Riku shot upright. "Zack!" he cried, and rushed down the stairs to throw himself into the man's arms.

"Riku!" Zack cried. "Thank God!" He crouched to get a better look at the boy. "You okay, buddy?"

"Yeah," Riku gasped out, trying not to hyperventilate.

"It's okay, you're okay, Ri, just breathe."

"I'm so glad...you're here..."

"Breathe, Riku, hold it. Hold it in for the count of ten," Zack said gently, resting his hand against the boy's chest.

By the time Tim diffidently came to join them, Riku had his breathing under control. "It was a _massacre_ , Zack, the Heartless just showed up and started attacking everyone, Bruce Wayne shoved Tim and me into his panic room, it actually had magic wards on it, he's not as dumb as he looks, but I don't know if he survived, he and Jason went-" Riku gulped, trying not to cry. "Jason was really brave. He- If he- I bet he's a really weak Heartless," he whispered.

"Hey, let's not go making assumptions about things we didn't actually see," Zack said firmly. "If this Wayne guy was smart enough to put you in a magic-warded panic room, he might have been smart enough to get your friend to safety, too."

"I just-"

"WHAT are you all doing in my house?" a voice thundered. Even some of the soldiers jumped when a well-muscled, broad-shouldered man came striding into the room, a smaller figure following close behind.

"Jason!" both Tim and Riku cried in relief.

"Yo! You're alive," the older boy called back, looking a little battered but very pleased. He came to stand with them as Bruce headed straight up to Zack and crossed his arms, leveling a glare at the shorter man.

"Does Shinra have anything to do with the attack on my home?" Bruce demanded.

Zack raised his hands in a placating gesture. "The Heartless are as much of a nuisance to us as they are to you."

Bruce swept his arm out to indicate his wrecked house. "You call this a _'nuisance'_? I'd call it an act of war on my homeworld."

"The Heartless don't come from _our_ world, either. The infection originated in Hollow Bastion, back when it was still Radiant Garden. Shinra's been studying the Heartless for decades, trying to figure out how to keep them at bay and maybe even raise fallen worlds back out of darkness."

"You will be forwarding the entirety of that research to me, tonight," Bruce said immediately.

A new voice rang out from the direction of the front door. "Perhaps that can be arranged, Mr. Wayne, if Shinra receives something of comparable value in return."

At the sight of his father pacing across the ruined hall, Riku edged slightly behind Zack.

Bruce's face looked downright frightening. "You would dare hold the safety of my entire world hostage just to win a _business deal_ for your corrupt, power-hungry _electric company_?"

Zack frowned. "Power-hungry...?"

Sephiroth tilted his head, ignoring his younger colleague. "Decades of work and resources went into amassing that information. Why should we just give it to you for free?"

"I'm sorry, I assumed you were a human being with a heart and a conscience," Bruce said icily. "Never mind; I'll get the information myself. Now, all of you except Timothy Drake and Riku Crescent," (both boys started in surprise at being noticed), " _get out of my house_. This is Gotham, none of you are citizens of this world, and none of you are authorized to be here."

Sephiroth reached for his sword.

"Seph," Zack said mildly, "he has a point."

Poison-green eyes narrowed at him in irritation.

"I mean, it's obvious what happened here, and Riku was a witness, we don't technically _need_ to conduct an investigation. And it _is_ illegal, especially when the property owner's still around to object. Plus, come on, you can't just kill him. We're not exactly in the untamed wilds here."

"The president will be hearing about this," Sephiroth intoned. "Riku, come." He turned and strode away, his hair flowing dramatically behind him as if tossed by a mysterious wind.

"Move out!" Zack called, and at his gesture, the soldiers under his command formed up and exited as well.

"I have to go," Riku muttered to his friends.

"Bruce said you can stay," Jason insisted.

"I can't."

"You really are welcome to stay here as long as you need to, Riku," Bruce said, looking like he was attempting, with limited success, to soften his tone and expression.

"No. I have to go." Riku looked up at Zack, who clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Gotham's going on the protection list as soon as we get back," Zack promised.

"I have reason to believe that this boy is not safe with his father," Bruce said, stepping closer.

Zack's eyes widened a little in surprise and then admiration at how effectively the billionaire loomed. "Don't worry, Shinra's one of the most fortified places on the Planet," Zack assured him. "I'll see if Riku can stay with my troop for a few days, too, so I can keep an eye on him. We're old hands at this, I won't let the Heartless get my favorite kid."

Riku blushed a little in pleasure, and Bruce's hands curled in frustration as he watched the two of them walk out together.

Once the three Gothamites were alone, Bruce looked out at the destruction. His butler emerged from the hall with a cart, and the two men exchanged a nod. Then Bruce looked at the younger boy. "Tim...I'm so sorry, but I haven't seen any sign of your parents-"

"They're in Cairo. I came here by myself."

Bruce blinked in confusion. "You came by- Did someone drop you off here? A nanny, or...?"

Tim squirmed uncomfortably. "I walked. It's not that far, my house is the closest one to yours."

Now Jason was frowning at him, too. "Didja sneak out?"

"No...?"

"Tim," Bruce said, "if your parents are in Cairo, who did they ask to look after you until they come back?"

Tim stared up at him, not knowing what to say. 'I'm old enough to take care of myself' did not seem like the right answer, even though it was true.

Bruce finally looked back at his butler. "Alfred, please prepare the bedroom next to mine. Young Mr. Drake is going to be staying with us for a few days."

"Very good, sir."

It turned out to be longer than a few days. Much longer. In fact, since Heartless had started appearing all over the world, and Cairo was one of the many cities that had been attacked by darkness that night, and Jack and Janet Drake's hotel was one of the establishments that had been overrun by the creatures, Tim never went back to live in Drake Manor again.

TBC

A/N: That's it for chapter 1. I don't have much time anymore to write during the week, but I did plan out the rest of the storyline and background. I don't know if it'll all actually get written, and I'm starting to have my doubts about this working as a continuous story (it might be better to do it as related one-shots), but we'll see how things go on my next Writing Day this weekend.

 **See this fic on AO3 for artwork!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**When the Shadows Reach Gotham (rough draft)**

 **A Batman / Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy VII crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Part 4 (Chapter 2.1)**

In the eight years since Heartless had first appeared in Prime Earth, no one had yet solved the problem of how to truly get rid of them.

The Justice League had tracked the source of the infestation to experiments performed by a scientist-king in a distant fallen world, but both the king and his apprentices had long since disappeared, their research looted. It had taken a covert-turned-dramatic League mission to obtain copies of that research from Shinra, which the scientists of Prime Earth, Batman foremost among them, had studied intensely and used as a springboard for their own research.

In the meantime, society had adjusted. Superheroes had added Heartless suppression to their duties, and new groups of unskilled vigilantes had sprung up solely to fight Heartless. Most ordinary citizens traveled with weapons now, since at least Shadows, the weakest and most common type of Heartless, could be vanquished with nothing more than some vigorous bashing. It was more problematic if the Shadows attacked in large swarms, or when more powerful Heartless appeared, and task forces had been created to identify Heartless-related disappearances and notify next-of-kin.

"This is so friggin' _pointless_ ," Red Hood growled as he shot bullet after bullet into a Soldier until it finally burst into smoke and prizes. Upon passing the Robin mantle on to Tim on his eighteenth birthday, Jason had created his own vigilante persona, citing the inspiration as a giant middle finger to the Rogue he most loathed. Although, out of respect for Batman, he kept real guns out of his normal vigilante work, he was allowed to go to town with his favorite weapon against the Heartless.

"They just respawn! In greater numbers, since they keep stealing hearts no matter _how - many - we - kill_." Each frustrated word was punctuated by a round of gunfire. When the Darkball finally exploded, Hood kicked at the bubbles it left behind as the items floated up to hover by the Treasure Magnet installed in his utility belt. "At least drop something USEFUL, demonbreath!" he shouted at the vanished creature.

"Just because they're not useful to _you_ doesn't mean they're not useful to _someone_ ," Red Robin pointed out, striking at a Neoshadow. Although the 'MP balls,' as they were called in the Gaian notes, had no effect on ordinary humans and some metas, magic-users and metas with certain types of powers coveted them for their ability to instantly restore portions of drained power.

Prizes dropped by Heartless and Nobodies were collected and traded both inside and outside the superhero community. HP balls were godsends to places like Crime Alley, and the Wayne Foundation had created a division for the express purpose of collecting, preserving, and distributing the magical healing orbs to the city's neediest people. Bruce Wayne was also a prominent leader in the fight to keep greedy corporations from either making a profit off of HP balls or causing them to be banned at the expense of the people who needed them most. Batman led a parallel fight against the gangs trying to do essentially the same thing illegally. Bruce himself relied on HP balls so heavily for enabling him to take reckless risks and ignore his health even more than usual that Alfred had taken to sniffing out and confiscating his stashes.

"And it's not pointless when we're saving five people from getting their hearts stolen right this minute," Red Robin continued. He glanced at the nearby building where the terrified would-be victims had fled to once the vigilantes had swooped down upon their attackers. Red Robin was keeping an ear out for screams in case the creatures found a way to their original prey inside, but so far, he and his brother seemed to be successfully holding them off.

"I'm trying to vent here, Red," Hood clarified, whirling to start shooting at an attacking Air Soldier.

"Just saying."

"It _is_ pointless, though, since all the people we save now are just gonna fall screaming into the void when Earth gets swallowed by darkness. We're not actually reducing the Heartless population here."

"Well, feel free to let us know when you've found the χ-blade," Red Robin returned, citing the legendary weapon that, according to the research, was the only weapon that could release a stolen heart from darkness and therefore 'kill' a Heartless for good. The Bats and the Justice League had made countless journeys to other universes and worlds, searching for the χ-blade, but all they'd found so far were rumors and tall tales. Recent trips from the past few months had been more promising, but no one from Prime Earth had yet found tangible proof that any of these kids and/or sinister black-cloaked people with giant key-swords actually existed.

Red Robin stiffened in alarm when he saw two blade-laden, tentacle-like arms rise silently out of the ground, poised to lash at his brother's feet. "Hood, JUMP!"

The older vigilante's instant obedience saved his legs from being sliced by the Assassin. Red Robin hurled a batarang to finish off the second Darkball Red Hood had been fighting, as Hood turned his own weapon on the Nobody in the ground.

"Stop _shooting_ , Hood, you _know_ they don't take damage when they're submerged!" Red Robin exclaimed in exasperation.

"Just _die_ already!" Hood yelled, kicking at the Nobody's head.

Red Robin rolled his eyes and shoved his brother aside, blocking a flailing attack from the Assassin with his staff and then striking hard when the Nobody was forced aboveground. Red Hood casually shot at a Red Nocturne as it tried to take advantage of the other vigilante's distraction.

At last, the street was quiet. The two Reds warily looked around to make sure all the enemies were gone before going to check on the civilians. "Everyone okay in here?" Hood called.

"Are they gone?" a little girl asked tremulously.

"All gone," Red Robin assured her. She burst into tears of relief and buried her face in her father's chest. "You guys want an escort the rest of the way?" Red Robin asked.

"That would be wonderful," the woman said in relief, hugging her two small boys close.

"Here," Hood said, scooping all the munny away from his belt and handing it to her when she stood up. "We don't need these, you guys can take them." The metallic orbs, though not used as regular currency in Prime Earth the way they were in some worlds, were still made of valuable material and could be exchanged for real money. One of the many new problems that had cropped up in the wake of the Heartless and Nobodies were desperate people who risked their lives in the hope of being able to grab munny and dash off without getting caught by any remaining monsters. Over half of such attempts were unsuccessful. "What about injuries, anyone hurt at all?"

"Gotta boo-boo on m' leg," the youngest child told him, and showed the vigilante a scraped knee. Hood smiled behind his helmet and knelt down to press an HP ball to the wound as the toddler's siblings watched in fascination.

"You all good now?"

"The end!" the child laughed in delight, making a sound effect to indicate how the healing orb had felt.

The Reds walked the family to their home, then grappled up to the rooftops to resume patrol. "There has got to be a better way to do this," Hood complained, jogging in a circle around the rooftop to demonstrate how his excess loot sailed along behind him in a long string and then clustered by his belt again when he halted.

The items were pretty good about not being too cumbersome, since they were weightless, easily displaced by combat movements, and just as easily returned to the magnet. However, they still sometimes unexpectedly obscured sightlines, or distracted civilians who ought to be fleeing to safety, and they were definitely bad for stealth missions. They accumulated very quickly, too, no matter how many the vigilantes gave away to passing civilians. "I've seen people fighting Heartless in other worlds, but _they're_ never walking around with a crapton of magic balls magneted to their hips."

"You're right," Red Robin mused. "My next off-world mission is in Traverse Town. I'll ask them how they manage prize collection in the field."

Just then, their comms crackled to life. _"I'm at Express Bank on Dane and Kesselton, could use some backup,"_ Nightwing's voice panted. _"It was a diversion, Riddler's HERE."_

 _"I noticed,"_ Batman grunted, apparently in a fight of his own.

 _"I KNEW I should have gone with Nightwing!"_ Robin screeched. Both Reds simultaneously winced.

"Geez, kid, don't _scream_ like that before you hit puberty," Hood complained.

 _"I do not SCREAM, Red Hood!"_

 _"Yes, everyone is very mature and manly, now will someone please get either Riddler or Penguin off my back so I can concentrate on the other one!"_ Nightwing said. There was a sound of rapid gunfire in the background.

"On my way," Hood replied, already leaping off the roof.

 _"Coming,"_ Black Bat added.

"Batman, Robin," Red Robin asked, "do you need assistance, or should I head for the bank as well?"

 _"As if we'd ever need help from YOU,"_ Robin said rudely, at the same time Batman barked out, _"Find their signal source and jam it!"_

"Sorry, gremlin," Red Robin said with a slightly vindictive smile, "Boss's orders trump yours."

 _"We can handle this ourselves, Fath-!"_ Robin protested, before being cut off with a grunt of pain.

 _"Pay attention, Robin,"_ Batman snapped, and this time there was no retort from his young partner. Red Robin's smile widened as he made his way across the city.

An hour later, the Bats met up for a coffee break, all perched on a rooftop and talking quietly (for the most part) to each other. Then they split up again, this time Robin with Nightwing, Black Bat with Batman, and Batgirl with Red Hood.

"You sure you don't want a patrol buddy?" Batgirl asked, her tone teasing but the question genuine.

"Nah. I'll call if I need backup."

"Be careful," Batman said, and then he'd vanished into the night, Black Bat only a second behind.

Once Red Robin was alone, he moved along his route unhurriedly, pausing a few times to stop minor crimes or help out civilians in need. After giving directions to a group of tourists and buying a pizza for a couple of homeless people, he stopped a mugging and dealt with the Shadows that popped up as a result (Heartless had a tendency to show up at crime scenes, which sometimes actually helped point crimefighters in the right direction. Nobody attacks were more random). He gave the munny and an HP ball to the very grateful would-be victim and continued on his way.

Just when Red Robin was considering calling it a night, panicked screams started up three streets away. He looked up and froze for a moment in horror. An enormous Heartless had appeared, rising up until it towered over the rooftops. It was clown-themed, purple and green with a white face and a huge, terrifying smile stained with stylized, blood-red markings.

 _'No...no...no...!'_ Common violence worked against most Heartless, and metas and magic-users could usually take care of the rare larger and stronger Heartless. There were some, however, that were hopelessly strong, on par with Superman and Wonder Woman. These Heartless were rarest of all, but when they did manifest, it was in Gotham City more often than not, since Gotham had the highest concentration of darkness-prone criminals in the world.

The Bats also seemed to be the most ill-equipped heroes to handle them. The giant Heartless had a profound psychological effect on Batman and Robin; the first time those particular vigilantes had encountered one (Two-Face's Heartless in Batman's case, Hush's Heartless in Robin's), they'd soon started to act like they were drugged, becoming simultaneously fearful and more aggressive, their grip on reality deteriorating, their bodies eventually starting to emit a smokelike aura as if they were becoming Heartless themselves without even being directly attacked.

Although the effect wasn't as strong on Red Hood and Red Robin, they felt it, too, a relentless pull into darkness that was incredibly difficult to resist or escape. The hearts of Nightwing and the Batgirls were the least affected, but they were still ordinary humans, and all their strength, skill, and strategy were not often a match for the monsters. Most of the giant Heartless in Gotham had only been defeated with the help of at least one meta, and Red Robin was sick at the thought of how much stronger Joker's Heartless would be than any other they had fought before. He hadn't even known Joker was loose... The clown must have seen his chance when Riddler and Penguin had escaped.

Red Robin's hand flew to his comm. "Giant Heartless attacking at my location; Joker suspected."

The response was immediate. Hood's voice was timed the best, coming out clearly a beat behind the others' exclamations. _"Joker's_ _handiwork_ _suspected, or Joker's HEARTLESS suspected?!"_

"The latter."

More than one of them swore. Then Batman grunted.

 _"What, B?!"_ Batgirl asked frantically. _"My Batmanese still sucks, someone translate!"_

 _"Very bad news,"_ Black Bat supplied.

 _"His cell's empty, isn't it,"_ Red Hood demanded, then started swearing again.

 _"I will NOT run away this time!"_ Robin insisted.

 _"I'll handle it,"_ Nightwing said sharply. _"Robin, go HOME, that is an order; Batman, Hood, I am_ _begging_ _you to go with him; Red, do not engage! Concentrate on civilians 'til we get there; the girls and I are coming!"_

"Wait- Someone's fighting it, I- Hold on." Red Robin grappled closer and touched his mask to zoom in. Then he stared in amazement at the lone, black-clad figure on the street, using a combination of magical attacks and strikes from an unknown, rather sparkly weapon. The attacks seemed paltry in comparison to the Heartless's size, but the monster was still shuddering and roaring in pain and anger.

"Unknown person fighting it effectively," Red Robin reported. "Looks like a black cloak; this might be one of our guys, Batman. I'm gonna get closer."

 _"Red-"_

"I'll be careful, Wing. I know my limits."

TBC

A/N: Darn, looks like I barely made a dent in this story... Even though I plan to re-focus on TBWS again next week, I'll see what I can keep doing about this one. Maybe alternate, or dedicate a small portion of my Writing Days to it or something.

 **See AO3 for art!**


	5. Alternate: A Friend in the Attic, Part 1

_**When the Shadows Reach Gotham**_ **, a Batman / Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy VII crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Alternate scenario: A Friend in the Attic - Part 1 (rough draft)**

A/N: A few weeks ago, I asked my friend breezy-cheezy for a prompt list, and one of them was an AU where Tim actually does take Riku home with him to live in his attic. XD This one's for you, dear!

o.o.o

Tim still hadn't gotten used to it yet, which was actually kind of nice. Every morning, he woke up and then a moment later, got an excited thrill in his stomach when he remembered that _his friend was still here_.

On the other side of the bed, Riku looked up from his tablet and smiled. He had learned, after the first morning, to stick around until his companion woke up, otherwise Tim would think he'd only been dreaming. Riku never wanted to see that broken look on his friend's face again. "Good morning, Tim."

"Morning, Riku. Oh! We're gonna try out the rice cooker today, right?" Since the boys had such different tastes, they'd fallen into an alternating routine, and today they were doing Japanese food. Riku had been making rice from scratch, but it took a long time that way. Tim had ordered a rice cooker online with a spare credit card his parents never used, and it had arrived the day before.

"Yes. We should be able to eat a lot quicker today."

They padded down to the kitchen, both still wearing the clothes they'd slept in. Tim turned on the kitchen TV so he could hear the news while he helped Riku cook.

 _"...but fortunately for the mayor, Batman and Robin managed to thwart the plan before any harm was done."_

Tim smiled as he stirred the soup. "Batman and Robin are pretty cool, huh."

"It's amazing that your city has people like them. I've never seen vigilantes anywhere else, but they're so common in this universe."

"How do people fight crime where you live? Not ordinary crime; stuff like evil plans from supervillains."

"Hm...I guess it's not very organized? Sometimes people threaten to destroy the world, and other people stop them. Most people don't know what's going on, though. I only know about some of them because Father and Zack work for Shinra." Riku was quiet for a long time as he worked. "I think my parents might be 'supervillains,'" he said in a low voice.

"Really? Did they ever try to destroy the world?"

"They always talk like they're trying to save it, or...not 'save,' exactly..." This time as Riku thought silently, he was concentrating too hard to continue cooking. Tim gently lowered the heat on the stove. "I think they think they're trying to save it," Riku said at last, unhappily, "but...they might...not be." He sighed deeply. "I think that's why Genesis and Angeal left. Zack doesn't know why and he gets sad sometimes, or mad, but if Shinra's really...the bad guys on my world...that makes a lot more sense."

"Do you want to be a supervillain like them, or do you want to be a superhero and stop them?" Tim asked.

Riku blinked. "I can be a superhero?"

"Sure. Well, maybe when you get a little older, like thirteen, maybe twelve. But yeah - there's lots of kid superheroes! Like Robin. Ooohh, and you can join the Teen Titans! I bet they'll like you a lot."

Riku was starting to look like a deer in headlights.

"Or if you're shy," Tim backtracked, "you can just help people in the shadows like Batman does. People know who he is now because Robin's so loud, and he joined the Justice League, and stuff like that; but back in the old days before Robin, Batman was so quiet when he fought crime that a lot of people didn't even think he was real. You can be a hero like that, if you want."

"Hmmm." The rice cooker dinged. "Can I think about it later?"

"Sure!"

The day passed happily. Tim had once found his home incredibly lonely and boring, but now it was a paradise. He hadn't even practiced the piano or struggled to read his parents' latest articles in _days_ , he was so busy. The only reason he'd remembered to spend a few hours on Brightstar Academy assignments was because Riku had had to go through some reports from Shinra, and Tim had remembered that he needed to keep up with school.

The rest of the time, the boys worked on their own projects and adventures. Over the passing weeks, they filled backpacks and hiked all over the grounds, finding interesting things to catalog. Tim took photos and Riku practiced his various skills (he had a lot of them). The two of them did combat training together, Riku teaching Tim most of it but being curious about Tim's karate videos. They experimented with cooking recipes and shared funny YouTube videos. They did science experiments and built toy models or obstacle courses that took up entire rooms. Riku watched curiously as Tim ordered interesting or useful things from the Internet, which would appear like magic by the front gate the next day. They took the bus into town to run errands or just explore the city.

It was heaven, and neither of them wanted it to ever end.

Mondays were the worst, because that was when the housekeeper always came. Tim had once longed for and looked forward to Mondays, but now they were a tiresome interruption. They'd have to wake up extra early, eat a quick breakfast, clean up any evidence of their adventures, then Riku would be stuck in the attic all day as Tim, unable to concentrate well, was super-bored waiting for Mrs. Mac to leave.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay, honey?" she asked, feeling his forehead for the third time that morning. "Usually you're constantly underfoot and chattering a mile a minute, but nowadays, it's like you can't wait to be rid of me."

"Sorry, Mrs. Mac," Tim said. "It's good to see you. How's Allison and the baby?"

"Oh, well wouldn't you know, that little rascal did the funniest thing the other day...!"

Tim smiled and listened politely as the housekeeper rambled about her family's antics, all the while thinking restlessly of Riku waiting in the attic. When the story (and the four after that which had segued too smoothly to interrupt) finally ended, Tim said quickly, "I think I'm gonna play outside for a while."

"Oh. Well, you want me to make you a snack before you go?"

"No, I'm fine. Thank you, Mrs. Mac!" Tim called, already almost to the next room.

He made his way outside, to the side of the house that had the best attic access, and climbed up. Some parts were harder than others, so it took a while, but he finally made it up to the right window. He nudged and jiggled until it was open, then slipped inside.

"Tim?" Riku, slightly dusty, stepped out from behind a sheet-covered piano.

"Hi, Riku. I told her I was going to play outside for a while."

"I see."

They made a board game out of the bag of art supplies Riku had brought up, and played it three times in a row. Then Tim heard Mrs. Mac calling him down for lunch, so he went. He finished eating quickly, smuggling bits of food as he went, and brought up the loot to Riku. Then they both just lay around reading for a while, then Tim started showing Riku cat videos on his phone. He had the volume turned low, but they must have been laughing too loudly, because Tim suddenly heard Mrs. Mac calling up to him in concern.

He raced downstairs, skidded to a stop, and smiled winningly. "Sorry, Mrs. Mac. I was watching videos on the Internet."

"I'll say! Sounded like there was more than one boy up there!"

"Yeah, it- It was a recording of something funny, and the people making the video were laughing, too. Sorry."

"It's okay, hon. Why, Gertie was showing me a video just the other day, it made me laugh like anything...!"

Tim endured the next round of storytelling, and eventually escaped to watch a documentary in the living room. He perked up at the eventual smell of cooking food, then at long last, Mrs. Mac came to the threshold, already with her hat, buttoned-up sweater, and purse. "Well, I'm off, dear. There's a plate already made up for you, and the rest is cooling on the counter, make sure you put it all in the refrigerator after _one hour_ , dear, no more than that. I set the timer."

"All right, Mrs. Mac," Tim said, going to hug her.

"You be good now, Timothy."

"Yes, Mrs. Mac."

She kissed the top of his head and held him for a long moment. Then she muttered something about "parents" and "this empty old house," and finally, FINALLY left.

Tim watched until the front gates closed, then leaped to his feet and raced up to the attic. "RIKU, ALL CLEAR!" he shouted.

Riku came down the last flight of stairs to meet him, smiling in response to Tim's huge grin. "What did she make?"

"Some kind of stew, and spaghetti for later in the week. We can eat that first if you want, though."

"It doesn't matter to me."

Halfway through dinner, the phone rang. When Tim saw the name on the caller ID, he snatched up the receiver. "Mom?" he asked breathlessly.

 _"Hello, darling! How are you?"_

"I'm good! Hi, Mom! Is Dad there?"

 _"Right here, sport,"_ a jovial voice said. They must have had the phone on speaker.

 _"Did Mrs. Mac come today?"_ Janet asked.

"Yup. I was good and didn't make any trouble for her."

 _"I'm glad to hear it."_

"Did you find any cool stuff today?"

 _"Not any 'stuff' per say, but we ran into a funny little man in town who had the most intriguing story, just wait until you hear this...!"_

Tim settled in to listen, murmuring and laughing at the right places, but focusing mostly on just the sounds of his parents' voices. They both sounded so happy, so bright and excited, he wished...he wished they could sound like that while they were here with him. Or that he could be over there with them when they sounded like that. But he was too young to travel around the world with them and be trusted with their work, so he just had to wait until he was older.

It was really nice of them to call sometimes, though, and tell him what they'd been up to. Sometimes they sent postcards. Tim had every one from the past year pinned up on a bulletin board in his room, with older ones in an album that he looked at sometimes when he knew he wouldn't mind crying.

When he finally hung up, he sat there for a long time, wondering why he was having to hold back tears when he'd just felt so happy. He just...he _missed_ his parents and it was always good to hear from them, but then he got really sad right after. Whereas when they hadn't called in a while, he was usually too busy doing his own things, and now playing with Riku, for missing them to hurt as much...

Oh. Riku. He was watching, a cup of tea nestled in his hands. Tim forced a laugh that was more like half-cough and half-sob, and rubbed his eyes to soothe them, because he hadn't cried but they were stinging uncomfortably. "Sorry."

"Did they tell you about all the mistakes you made?"

"Huh? No, we were just talking about stuff they've been doing the past couple of months, the things they found."

"You look really sad..."

"Oh! No, I'm not sad, I just, my face just does this sometimes when my parents call. But I'm actually really happy!"

Riku, who had _seen_ Tim when he was genuinely happy and knew that his friend was not so now, did not know how to respond to this.

Tim sniffed and visibly perked up. "You want me to show you how to get onto the Wayne property? The cemetery's really nice. We have to stay on the edge so they won't see us from the house, but some of those old graves are really pretty. Sometimes I clean them, because Mr. Pennyworth only gets to three, _maybe_ five graves after the Waynes' - Thomas and Martha - before his phone goes off, he doesn't have much time for outside work. And he likes working in the greenhouse more. There are some _really_ pretty flowers in there, I can show you next time Mr. Pennyworth goes to town. We have to go early in the morning, none of the Waynes will be awake then, so we won't get caught."

Riku smiled, gently interrupting his friend, who could get pretty verbose when he was excited about something. "That sounds good, Tim. Can we watch that Hubble Space Telescope documentary tonight?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that! Sure, Riku."

TBC

A/N: Unlike with _The Birds Who Smile_ , I don't think there's much preventing me from continuing with the main _When the Shadows Reach Gotham_ story other than trying to find the time, so I'll see what I can do about that.


	6. Chapter 5

**When the Shadows Reach Gotham (rough draft)**

 **A Batman / Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy VII crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Part 5 (Chapter 2.2)**

The Heartless was so strong, Red Robin didn't make it close enough to get a good look at its opponent before he started feeling the effects of darkness. The vigilante stumbled, trying to hold on to mental rainbows and bunnies.

It was so _hard_ , though... _You're not good enough, no one wants you, no one cares about you_ wouldn't stop ringing over and over again in his ears, rejection and loss and loneliness growing heavier with each step he took closer to the Heartless until he felt crushed by its weight.

 _'My family loves me,'_ he insisted, even his thoughts sounding dull. _'I'm smart and strategic and indispensable, Jason thinks I'm awesome, Dick's always wanting to go out for ice cream and stuff, Bruce told me he was proud of me last week...'_

Yet he still found himself slumped by a wall, head hanging, useless, _useless_ , just like the voices said. _'Dick said...to stay back, 'cause I'm worthless in a fight...he always has to clean up after me...Golden Boy, everyone loves him, no one loves me, why should they, no one invited me, I showed up all on my own, was supposed to be my parents, they left me, no one wants me...'_

He'd collapsed by now, on his hands and knees like a baby, and he couldn't even bring himself to care, not even when he noticed darkness like smoke starting to drift from his body. Like Batman and Robin, when they got too close to giant Heartless. Useless. Falling to darkness. He'd become a Heartless and no one would even notice he was gone. _'Just die, Drake, you pathetic loser-'_

Something flopped over him. Red Robin blinked, frowned in confusion, then slowly sat up. There was a garment draped over him - a cloak? No, there were long sleeves and a full-length zipper; it was a coat.

He'd stopped steaming darkness. His head felt clearer, the accusing voices faded to faint whispers in the back of his mind. Experimentally, he pulled back his cowl and replaced it with a domino mask, tucked his arms into the coat's sleeves, and did up the two-way zipper before tugging the coat's hood over his head. Now it was as if he could hardly feel any effects from the Heartless's presence at all.

He scrambled to his feet, trying to shove his wildly excited feelings at the discovery of darkness-armor into a mental box for later. Right now, there was Joker's Heartless to deal with.

He had a better view of the warrior now, the one who had loaned Red Robin his coat. It was a very young man, possibly still a teenager, in jeans and a sleeveless top, with waist-length blue-silver hair and what did indeed look like a sparkly giant key-sword. He used the weapon both to bash away at the Heartless and to cast an assortment of magic attacks, fire and ice and some weird ones thrown in that Red Robin couldn't identify but which caused the Heartless to stagger and cry out.

The monster of darkness wasn't taking its beating quietly, though. It was swiping and casting magic of its own, less element-based and more clown-themed, such as the razor-sharp deck of cards it flung at the key warrior or the peals of crazy laughter that literally _hurt_ to hear. Shadows kept rising out of its footsteps.

Red Robin wasn't sure how the other teen was managing to resist the effects of darkness so far, but even with that ability, he still needed help.

The vigilante grappled up to a roof and twisted his staff to activate a blade on the end. Then he shot his grappling gun and swung.

He _hadn't_ missed. He'd sprayed smoke as a cover and aimed his blade exactly where he knew the eye would be, he _knew_ he hadn't missed, and yet there wasn't as much give as he'd expected. The staff didn't pierce the eyeball, yet Red Robin didn't bounce, either; he simply sailed on along his trajectory, his body barely registering the impact that had to have happened when his weapon struck the monster. It didn't match the laws of physics and felt _super-weird_. He'd felt this feeling before when fighting Heartless, but never as pronounced as this.

The disorientation nearly threw off his landing, but Red Robin managed to compensate in time and hit the opposite roof rolling rather than smacking straight into it. He popped up to his feet just in time to see the Heartless turn its giant head toward him, cackling something about breaking little birds' necks.

Tim waited to strike until the clown's hand was reaching for him, and again came that weird defying-the-laws-of-physics feeling. He could _see_ his staff hitting the hand of the Heartless, could sort of feel it, but the strength of impact didn't match. The Heartless roared angrily, but its hand kept slowly reaching. Red Robin bashed wildly, and it was kind of like hitting a pillow.

A second before he was going to fly on out of there, the silver-haired man came leaping over the edge of the roof. He thrust out his hand and a bolt of lightning came crackling out of nowhere. Once again, the Heartless bellowed as if in pain, slowly withdrawing its hand at last, but the body had barely shown any physical reaction to the jolt.

"Are you hurt? Do you have any magic?" the man called to him. This close, Red Robin could see now that he was wearing a blindfold, though the lack of normal eyesight didn't seem to hinder him in any way.

"No and no!"

"Well, your physical attacks are decent, so keep hitting him if you want, but there's no point in going for the head. He takes damage at the base just as well, and people in this world die if they fall from tall buildings." The man - boy? He'd looked really young, about Tim's age - leaped off the roof again. Red Robin rushed to the edge and was astounded to see him sail down, not quite fast enough for someone plummeting off a five-story building, and land as if he'd only jumped a couple of feet before renewing the fight.

 _'Batman's not going to be happy about an uninvited meta,'_ Red Robin thought, but it was good to have a meta on your side when facing a giant Heartless, particularly one who seemed like he knew what he was doing.

Red Robin made his way back to the ground and resumed the fight. The hood's limitation on his field of vision was annoying, but at least the Heartless was big enough that it couldn't sneak up on him (also, now he knew how it felt to fight in Stephanie's old Spoiler costume). He'd been hacking away for about ten minutes when he exclaimed in exasperation, "How powerful _is_ this thing?!" His arms were aching.

"Keep going, he's down to his last bar!" the other teen shouted.

"His last what?!"

"Let me finish him off so he won't respawn!"

Red Robin froze. "How do I know how close we are to finishing him off?!"

"Get back!"

Frustrated at the lack of answers but knowing how important it was to do what was necessary to win, Red Robin dodged aside. A few strikes of the key later, there was a sudden burst of blinding, sparkly light. The Heartless convulsed and screamed out one last round of laughter, then slowly dissolved into darkness and then nothing. Something that looked like an enormous heart-shaped pink jewel rose into the sky and vanished.

"What the _hell_?!" Red Robin panted, sinking down to brace his hands on his knees. All the smaller Heartless had disappeared as soon as the giant one was gone, and the air felt clearer, less oppressive.

The other teen gulped down a glowing green drink out of a bottle and then sighed, hair flowing in the wind as if he was in a shampoo commercial rather than fresh off a battle. The key disappeared out of his hand in a flash of sparkles. "That was not fun."

"No kidding."

The other guy eyed him. "I'll take my coat back now."

Red Robin had been hoping he'd turn out to be really flaky and not remember that he'd lent it. It would be _amazing_ to get a chance to study the garment and hopefully replicate its apparent darkness-blocking powers. "Is there any chance I could...borrow it for a little while...?"

The guy's face hardened, and the key flashed back into his hand.

"It was just a suggestion." Red Robin reached for the zipper. "How does this thing hold darkness at bay?"

"I don't know. A creepy old guy gave it to me."

Red Robin paused, eyeing him.

"It works, though. The Keyblade works pretty well in the Realm of Light, but I haven't had any problems in the dark corridors since I got the coat."

Tim had no idea what this guy was talking about, but he _had_ to get him to the manor. Hearing all this casually-mentioned information that could help in the war against the Heartless was like watching someone carelessly dropping bits of gold as if they were pebbles to take for granted. "I'm Red Robin," he introduced himself as he slid his arms out of the coat and handed it over.

"I'm-" the young man started, but then stopped unhappily as if he didn't know what to introduce himself as. "Are you one of the guardians of this city? A...superhero?" He spoke the word as if it was a foreign one that he only partially knew the definition of.

"I guess some people would call us that, though we Bats don't have any superpowers."

"Bats..."

"Batman's allies. We're _technically_ vigilantes."

"Batman's-" He suddenly pushed up part of the blindfold, revealing a bright aquamarine eye with a subtle glow that Tim found familiar. "You're the boy from Bruce Wayne's house! When the Heartless broke into this world."

Then it clicked. "Riku?!"

"Tim?!"

That jolted him. "Oop - don't call me that when I'm masked, my identity's kind of a secret," Tim said, brushing a hand across his face in an instinctive gesture.

Riku tilted his head in mild confusion, but simply said, "All right."

Just then, there was a whir of grappling lines, then Batgirl swooped down and rolled into a landing, popping up close enough to make Riku back away hurriedly. "Cavalry's here! Where's the Heartless?"

"Gone."

"What?!"

Red Robin looked up and saw his sister and eldest brother perched on nearby rooftops. They both waved. _"Mission complete,"_ he signed in response. Nightwing made a full-body gesture like _"What the heck?!"_

"You're a...superhero bat, too?" Riku asked cautiously.

"Yup, I'm Batgirl! That's Nightwing and Black Bat up there. R, whaddaya mean the Heartless is _gone_ , you let it escape?!"

"He's 'R,' too, for the record," Red Robin said, and introduced his friend. "I met him at a party when we were kids. And he helped me - well, really, I helped _him_ \- defeat the Heartless."

"Rich boy, too, huh?" Batgirl remarked, looking Riku up and down in reassessment.

"Do you...need munny for something?" Riku asked warily.

Red Robin ran a hand over his face in exasperation. "He's from a different world, Batgirl. And just ignore her, Riku. I have to explain you to my family, which might take a while, and I'd rather do it when we're all together so I don't have to go through it multiple times."

Nightwing and Black Bat, having apparently figured out that there was nothing to keep alert for, joined them on the ground. "Hi," Black Bat greeted the stranger. She set a hand on his chest. Riku tensed a bit, but didn't move. "Strong. Don't worry." She withdrew her hand.

"Thanks for your help," Nightwing said to Riku. "What's your stage name?"

"Stage name...?"

"They don't have superheroes where he's from," Red Robin explained. "Do you just go by your name, Riku, or does anyone call you anything different?"

"Naminé's pretty much the only one who calls me anything these days. My friends...I haven't seen them in a long time, and there's no one else who cares what my name is."

"We care," Red Robin said at once. "Do you have anyone you need to protect, though? Maybe Naminé?" He had no idea who that was, but it was a safe bet that they were someone whom Riku would want to be safe. "Using an alias can make it harder for villains to track down your civilian identity and your loved ones."

"Ooh, I got this," Nightwing said, at the same time Batgirl exclaimed, "Ooh, can we name him?!" Then they simultaneously burst out with "Blindfold Man!" and "I vote Silverdawn!"

Red Robin facepalmed with both hands.

"Is it important for me to have a pseudonym in this world?" Riku asked cautiously.

Black Bat pointed at her siblings. "Sorry for dumb brother and sister."

"We are not calling him 'Blindfold Man,'" Red Robin said firmly. He could hear sirens approaching. "Silverdawn will work, if Riku has no objections. Meanwhile, we need to get back to the cave. Riku has a lot of valuable information, and he also already knows who we are, so that'll make things easier."

"Actually, I only know who you are," Riku said. "And Mr. Wayne and...what was his son's name? Jason? I have no idea who the rest of you are."

"This is Cave Talk. Let's go before the police get here."

TBC

A/N: In _Kingdom Hearts II_ , Riku turns out to be wearing his normal street clothes beneath the black coat, but his footwear is not explained. X'''D I'm writing this as if his tennis shoes were visible beneath the hem of the coat rather than him wearing black boots when the coat is on and then magically wearing tennis shoes when he sweeps the coat off.

Silverdawn is the name of Riku as a HTTYD-style dragon. I know for sure that Breezy visually designed him, and it was _probably_ me who thought of making him a dragon in the first place, but I honestly can't remember which one of us came up with the name. XD


	7. Alternate: A Friend in the Attic, Part 2

_**When the Shadows Reach Gotham**_ **, a Batman / Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy VII crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Alternate scenario: A Friend in the Attic - Part 2 (rough draft)**

*If you're reading this on FFN, make sure you didn't miss the new chapter of the main story which I posted last night.

o.o.o

Sometimes Tim was the one who had to hide. The first time they heard a sound like an aerial vehicle descending outside, Riku gasped and grabbed Tim, who was staring curiously out the windows, trying to figure out the shape of the thing from the shadow it was casting. "Hide hide hide, Tim, don't come out, don't come out until I tell you...!"

"What-?"

Riku shoved his friend into the closest entrance to the servants' corridors and slammed the door shut before dragging a decorative table in front of it. He raced into the parlor, which was suitably elegant and not messed up from his and Tim's activities, and frantically stopped in front of the mirror to straighten up his appearance as best he could.

Yazoo came striding in a few minutes later. "Riku. Mother is angry that she can't find you."

"Is she?" Riku said loftily, his pounding heart at odds with the slow, careful way he'd started the first kata that came into his head.

Yazoo frowned judgmentally. "Why are you training in a guest reception room?"

"Too many pests in the garden," Riku invented on the spot. "I've arranged to have a menial come to exterminate them. Though I might get bored and eradicate them myself, to brush up on my skills."

Yazoo sighed in dismissal; he honestly couldn't care less. "Are you coming home, or do I have to force you?"

"What does Mother want _this_ time?"

"Hojo has locked up Mother, Father does not feel inclined to rescue her, Kadaj has been arrested again, and Loz is injured. She wants you to get her out."

"Why don't _you_ get her out?"

"My schedule is full, and even if it wasn't, I need time to relocate the rest of my headquarters in case she decides to destroy Midgar when she's free."

Riku knew better than to ask about all the people who would get hurt or killed if Jenova successfully vented her wrath on the city.

" _I'm_ busy, too."

"Doing what?" Yazoo challenged. "You don't look busy to me." He looked around. "Whose house is this, anyway?"

"How should I know? They're gone now. This place suited me."

Yazoo sneered, unimpressed. "It's a very impractical base of operations. Why this world? Do you have any designs on it?"

"I'm still deciding whether it's worth my time."

His brother finally grew bored and lost interest. "Well, you have the message, do what you will with it. I'm not traversing worlds again just to be Mother's errand boy, so come home soon, you selfish ingrate."

Both of them knew that for all Yazoo's rebellious words, he would obey immediately whenever Mother or Father gave him an order. Riku did not mention that. "I prefer the opportunities here, but I'll consider it."

Without a goodbye, Yazoo turned and marched away. Riku went to the window and watched intently until his brother's ship vanished into the sky. He waited ten more minutes, just to be sure, then went to track down Tim in the servants' corridors.

"Who was that?" Tim asked. He'd been spying through a peephole in a portrait that had been designed for that specific purpose three generations before and then forgotten about, until he'd re-discovered it a few months ago.

"Someone I don't want knowing about you," Riku muttered. "Stay away from him, Tim, and anyone who looks like him. They're dangerous."

Tim tilted his head. "You look like him."

Riku grimaced. "I'm dangerous, too. The only difference is I don't _want_ to hurt you."

"You're nice, Riku."

The comment, dropped so casually, gave Riku a half-ashamed, half-delighted glowing feeling.

"Can we get back to the game now?"

"Yes, but I have to leave for a while afterward."

Tim looked stricken.

"It's because of my family," Riku explained. "I promise I'll come back, Tim, okay?"

"Okay," Tim whispered.

They tried to resume their game, but Tim's heart obviously wasn't in it, and Riku seemed unhappy and preoccupied. Eventually they gave up and Riku packed a bag and called Zack. While they waited for the ship to arrive, they sat together on the back terrace, neither of them saying anything.

Eventually, a shadow blocked out the sun again, but Tim barely looked up. A few minutes later, a cheerful man with spiky black hair came striding toward them. "Riku!"

"Zack!"

"So this is where you've been all this time, huh?" the man chuckled, ruffling Riku's hair.

"Yes, Tim has been letting me stay here with him. I like it...better than home."

"Well, it's good to see you with a friend." Zack smiled at Tim. "I'm Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class. Riku here is a buddy of mine."

"Hello," Tim said politely, holding out a hand to shake. "I'm Tim Drake."

They chatted for a few minutes longer, then the two Gaians boarded the ship and flew away. Tim sat back down at the table, put his head in his arms, and was sad.

He blinked when he realized that the sun was setting - he must have fallen asleep. He trudged inside, feeling heavy and fatigued despite his nap, and felt too depressed to warm up anything to eat. He put on a video game and played for hours, until his eyes felt gritty and his stomach was churning with hunger. He went to the kitchen and ate half a box of pre-packaged dessert cakes. He sat there on the floor of the pantry for a long time and cried, then fell asleep again.

He woke up because someone was shaking him. "Tim? Tim, are you okay?"

"Riku," Tim breathed. Riku's hands were on his shoulders. He grasped the other boy's arms and then just sat there for a while, feeling content.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked again, still worried. There were a few rips in his clothes, some sort of grime or oil streaked across his cheek and neck, and some minor but untreated cuts and bruises marring his pale flesh.

"Yeah. I'm glad you're back." Tim frowned a little. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I couldn't find you at first. Why were you sleeping in here?"

"I was..." Tim shifted uncomfortably. "Let's go get the first aid kit, you need some Band-Aids."

"I need a bath, too," Riku said.

When they finally went to bed, they slept closer together than usual, nearly touching. By the time they woke up late the next morning, Tim was nestled right into Riku, who had his arm flung across the smaller boy and his cheek pressed against Tim's hair. Both of them felt awkward at the physical closeness neither of them were accustomed to, but each also thought secretly to himself that it had also felt kind of nice, even safe.

"I'm glad you came back, Riku."

"Me, too."

o.o.o.o.o

Tim wasn't sure what had awakened him. He sat up abruptly and focused on the darkness of his bedroom, frowning as he listened and watched.

There was a faint clatter in the distance.

Tim scrambled out of bed, and Riku jerked awake. "What is it?!"

"Something's wrong." Tim hauled on the armor he'd made for combat games with Riku, and picked up his toy staff that was solid enough to work as a real staff.

Riku could hear it now, too, noises and faint voices from downstairs as if there were people in the house other than themselves. Burglars? "Shouldn't the alarm have gone off?"

"Yeah, I- I thought I checked it? Maybe I forgot to set it last night...?" Tim said doubtfully, knowing that he _had_ set it. Schooled by all the lonely, scary nights he'd spent by himself before befriending Riku, it was an ingrained habit by now.

"I won't let anyone hurt you, Tim," Riku said, strapping on his belt of materia.

The boys crept downstairs. They followed the commotion and peered around the corner. Then a woman's laugh rang out, and Tim gasped. Riku caught a glimpse of a man and a woman (they didn't _look_ like burglars) lounging around the kitchen, the man pouring them glasses of wine. Then his friend was shoving him back toward the stairs. "What is it?! Who are they?!"

"It's Mom and Dad! They didn't call, I thought they weren't coming until- Hide, Riku! The attic!"

Riku, realizing that this was like the times when the housekeeper came, pulled away and rushed up the rest of the stairs. Tim took a deep breath, hid his weapons and armor, tried to remember how to arrange his face, then crept shyly into the kitchen. "Mom? Dad?"

"Timothy, darling! What are you doing up?"

Tim ran to them, and basked in his mother's hug. She kissed the top of his head, then let go of him far sooner than he wanted to be. So he turned to his father, who stretched out an arm to ruffle his hair before he could get near, and Tim knew that a hug would be awkward and one-sided, so he stopped trying for one before even starting. "I couldn't sleep. I didn't know you were coming home!"

"Funding got cut, blast it... We're here to make a petition to the directors, maybe do some fundraising if that doesn't pan out. Don't worry, kiddo, we won't be home long. We'll be out of your hair soon; a month at the most, I'd figure."

Tim took a deep breath to steady his feelings and managed to smile. "Oh. Well, I wouldn't mind if you stayed longer. It's okay."

"Mm," his mother said, finishing off the last of her glass. "I doubt you'll even notice us leave, I _saw_ how busy you've been while we were away, you rascal! You'll be cleaning up the living room tomorrow."

"Yes, Mother."

"I haven't checked your grades in a while; have you been keeping up with your schoolwork?"

"Yes, Mother."

"Top scores?"

"Yes, Mother. Would you like to see my medals?" he offered hopefully, referring to the digital awards received for perfect scores and special accomplishments.

"Oh, don't bother, I'll look it up when I get a chance." She yawned. "Goodness, that _was_ a long flight, wasn't it! I'm bushed."

"Go on back to bed, son," Jack Drake said, patting Tim's shoulder. "We'll see you in the morning."

"Yes, Father."

Tim went up to his room and bundled pillows under the blankets to make it look like a child might be sleeping there. Then he crept out again and hid, watching, until his parents disappeared into their room for the night.

Tim exhaled and hurried up to the attic. "Riku?"

"Tim?"

"Sorry," Tim said, meeting the other boy halfway. "They...they might be here for a while, maybe a month. Do you...? Are you okay being in the attic for that long, or do you want to go home...?"

The corner of Riku's mouth quirked in a small, mirthless grin. "Honestly, I'd rather be bored in your attic for a month than go home."

"Oh." Tim was simultaneously relieved and worried that his friend's home was bad enough that he'd rather hide in an attic for weeks than return there. "Okay. Let's get everything set up for you, we might not get the chance when they're awake."

They carried up everything they could think of that Riku might need. Entertainment, of course, and also food, bedding, and Tim even thought to bring a bucket to use as an emergency toilet in case Riku didn't have the chance to sneak to the closest bathroom without being caught. "Maybe you can shower at night?" Tim suggested, thinking hard. "In my room, and I'll lock myself in the bathroom with you so my parents will think it's me if they check."

They tried it the next night, and everything went well. (In fact, they did it every night the whole week, and the Drakes never came to check.) "Tim, is there any more shampoo?" Riku asked, reaching around the edge of the shower curtain to wave the empty bottle.

"Oh, yes, I think so." Tim fished around in the cabinet until he found a full bottle. "What have you been doing for the last ten minutes?" he wondered as he handed it over.

Riku gave him an odd look. "Washing my hair."

"But...why would you need more shampoo if you already shampooed it...?"

"I only got to wash it twice with the old bottle."

"...You wash your hair twice?"

Riku was now matching Tim's mystified stare. "Don't...don't you wash your hair three times?"

"...No?"

"No?!" There was a long pause. "Why not...?"

Tim was now wondering if he'd gone his whole life not knowing how to bathe properly. "Because...when you wash it once, it's clean, so...there's no need to wash it more than that...? Until your next shower, I mean."

Riku stared at the bottle. Then he turned it over to read the directions. "It doesn't say anything about washing more than once," he said blankly.

"How come you wash your hair three times?"

"Because...Father told us to..." After a long pause, Riku's face suddenly hardened and his grip tightened. He practically slammed the shampoo down next to the other bottles. "What about conditioner?" he demanded. "How many times?"

"Just...just once," Tim said warily. "I think. Maybe I'm wrong. But you can definitely conditioner, I mean condition three times if you want! It's okay!"

"Do _normal_ people only wash their hair once?" Riku stormed. "Are _you_ the weird one, or is it ME?"

"I don't know!" Tim cried, nearly in tears. "Mom and Dad never told me to do it more than once when I was little, but they're probably wrong! I'm sorry, Riku!"

Riku, realizing belatedly that he was upsetting his friend, quickly softened. "I'm sorry, Tim, you're not the one I'm mad at. You're probably right. I am going to use all of these bottles only _once_ , because I want to be NORMAL like you." He slammed the shower curtain closed.

Tim, tears starting to dribble down his cheeks, put his hand on the doorknob but then snatched it back again when he remembered that he was only in the bathroom in the first place to guard Riku in case his parents came in to see why there was water running. He spent the rest of Riku's shower crouched on the floor, wiping tears from his face and fiercely willing himself to _stop crying_. When the water finally shut off, he gasped and straightened, trying to breathe and look normal instead of like an idiot crybaby.

"May I please have a towel?" Riku asked.

"Mm-hm," Tim murmured, putting one in the hand reaching from behind the shower curtain. He made himself breathe deeply and actually managed to have a smile on his face by the time Riku pushed the shower curtain aside.

Riku stared. "Are you okay?"

"Mm-hm!" Tim hummed brightly, knowing he'd burst into stupid tears again if he tried to speak.

"I- I didn't mean to get angry. I was angry at my family, not at you."

"Mm-hm!"

Tim waited until Riku was dressed and safely settled in the attic. Then he returned downstairs and broke down crying again, sobbing freely and dismally as he walked to his father's study and turned on the computer. The tears wouldn't stop the whole time he was typing, until he finally stared at the screen, looking at the seventh confirmation he'd found that it was normal to wash one's hair only once during a shower.

Tim drew in shuddering breaths, trying to calm down. His body and emotions apparently refused to believe that everything was okay now and he wasn't in trouble, but at least he knew it with his mind. He turned the computer off again and went back to his room. He felt exhausted when he lay down and pulled the covers over his head, and he soon fell asleep.

TBC

A/N: The shampoo stuff in this chapter references my Kingdom Hearts one-shot _Why I Ward Off Darkness_.


	8. Chapter 6

**When the Shadows Reach Gotham (rough draft)**

 **A crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Part 6**

Neither Bruce nor Damian initially took kindly to an alternate universe meta stranger showing up in the Batcave, but they shut up and paid attention as soon as Tim told them about the coat.

"I don't know how it works," Riku said again. He had taken off the coat without much persuasion, but insisted on keeping the blindfold on. Tim still hadn't gotten around to asking about that accessory, since it didn't seem to be for identity protection. "DiZ gave it to me - I don't know who he is, either; he's a strange old man who showed up and happened to have the same goal as me, so we're allies for now. All I know is that the coat works."

"It's not leather," Bruce said, closely examining the garment in his hands. "I'll have to get Zatanna to see if it's magical." He carried it away to his lab on the other side of the cave.

"Can I braid your hair?" Stephanie piped up.

"Umm...I guess?"

Riku looked like he didn't know how to react to the teenage girl with her hands and an assortment of sparkly flower and butterfly clips in his hair, so he eventually just ignored her.

 _"All right, Riku,"_ Barbara said from the Batcomputer, pulling up a chart on the main screen. _"Do you think you can point out for us which world you come from?"_

Riku stared. "...No. Not on that, anyway."

"How do you travel from world to world?" Tim asked.

"I mostly use dark corridors these days, it's a lot easier than taking a Gummi ship." Riku blinked in surprise at how they all suddenly fixated on him even more intently.

"What are dark corridors?"

"Corridors of darkness between worlds... They erode your heart if you're in them too long, but the coats protect against that."

Riku cooperated with the interrogation for a while, and Alfred's snacks helped. Eventually, though, Tim noticed Riku flagging, and warred with his obsessive curiosity for a minute before his human decency won out. "Okay, I think the rest can wait for later. Do you need to be anywhere soon, Riku, or can you stay the night?"

"I can stay the night, I suppose. Just let me message DiZ and Naminé."

Riku went up to the house with Dick, Jason, and the girls, but the others remained in the cave, working on the new data they'd collected. It was a little past 3:00 a.m. when Bruce ordered Tim and Damian to go to bed. They went upstairs, grumbling, and parted ways in the hall.

Tim stopped by the kitchen for some cookies and was just heading up to bed when he saw Riku in the ballroom. He frowned and went to stand in the entryway.

Riku seemed to be searching for something. He'd jump to get height (meta-level height - even the most athletic non-meta couldn't get that high from ground level), and glide in a circular pattern, gradually drifting closer and closer to the floor until he got too low and had to land. Then he'd jump up and start again, working his way from the perimeter of the room to the center.

Tim waited until Riku had finished and was just standing there, seeming unsatisfied. "Are you looking for something?" Tim called.

Riku looked up. "I've been checking the house for Heartless, but there don't seem to be any hotspots."

"Bruce made sure of that," Tim assured him. "We don't get any Heartless in the house or the nearby grounds, unless someone gets really mad or upset. They pop up in the woods, though. There really are certain locations that they seem to like more than others."

"Yeah, no one's sure why, but it's convenient." Riku started walking back to where Tim stood.

"What's your full skillset?" Tim asked curiously. "It's usually actual aliens I've seen have that many special abilities. Earth metahumans tend to specialize." Riku had stiffened at the word 'alien.' "Sorry," Tim realized. "You're part-alien, too, right? There's nothing wrong with that, we have a lot of extraterrestrial friends and allies. Dick's dating one."

"I...no, I know, it's just..." Riku sighed a little. "My parents finally went off the deep end. It...people don't react well if they realize I'm related to them." He frowned. "And my _stupid brothers_ aren't helping, going around yelling for Mother and destroying things in Father's name."

"I read about it, when I went to Midgar," Tim said quietly. "The Crisis, right?"

Riku winced. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry your parents are villains, but you're not them. Plenty of our friends and allies are children of supervillains, too, and they're all good people and usually trustworthy."

Riku took a deep breath. "Yeah." He shook his head. "Anyway, no, I was pretty ordinary before the Islands fell. Then I got the Keyblade, and the more I fight, the more abilities I gain. Sora's the same, and he's 100% human."

"So it's the Keyblade that gives you those abilities?"

"I guess. I know a lot of other people with special abilities, but they get it from materia instead of a Keyblade."

"I heard about materia when I went to Midgar, mostly from people trying to sell it to me, but I still don't know what it actually is."

"It's crystallized Mako."

Tim grinned at how Riku seemed to assume that these random words meant anything to him. "And what's Mako, exactly?"

"It's...energy from the Planet, I think; from Gaia. I haven't seen anyone use materia in other worlds. Plenty of Keyblades, but the wielders are all world-hoppers, too. I don't know if there's a homeworld for Keyblades."

Tim was fascinated, but Riku had recently come off an interrogation and didn't need another. "Well, let's go to bed, and how about tomorrow we talk more? Do you have any plans?"

"I was going to look for anyone who knows about memories, like a specialist."

"Huh. Well, I can help you with that, if you don't mind me asking you a million questions on the way."

"Sure."

Tim saw Riku to one of the guest rooms and then went to bed himself (or tried to - it was a while before he could get to sleep). He was awakened by Alfred at about 9:00 in the morning, who meaningfully implied that Riku had been awake for a while and ready to go. Tim dragged himself out of bed and through a quick shower, threw on some clothes, and made his way downstairs, where he found Riku in the library.

"Oh, you're up," Riku remarked happily.

"Good morning. Sorry to keep you waiting, we're kind of nocturnal... I'm gonna grab some food and I'll eat on the way, okay? Sorry to hold you up."

"It's fine. I'd like to spend all morning in here if I had time." Riku smiled down at the book in his hand.

"You and Jason will probably get along. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay."

Tim went to the kitchen and started stuffing food into a plastic bag as Cass told him good morning and Damian snarked sleepily at him. Alfred was just pouring coffee into a thermos for him when the house started to shake.

They all exchanged wide-eyed looks, then Damian looked out the window and swore in Arabic. Tim stared in horror at the dark storm that was poised in the sky over Gotham and was starting to suck up bits of the city like it was a freaking black hole.

"Get to the cave," Alfred commanded, and snatched up the kitchen go bag before rushing out of the room. Tim and the others hurried to follow. Instead of heading straight for safety, Damian ran to get his animals and Cass, like Alfred, was headed to drag the other Bats out of bed. Tim went for Riku. "We have to get to the cave!" he shouted. "Something's happening to Gotham and the cave is safer than the manor!"

Riku was staring out the window, gripping the sill hard and looking even more horrified than Tim's siblings had. "No!" he cried. "No no no, not now, not again, _no_...!"

Tim grabbed his arm and started dragging him. They stumbled up the shaking stairs, reaching the top just as Bruce rushed past them for the study where the cave entrance was. Alfred stumbled coming out of Stephanie's room and she, still in pajamas, grabbed him to keep him from falling.

Then Tim realized that there were shadows on the floor. Black zig-zagging ones. Not simple shadows; _Shadows_ , monsters that had been unable to set foot in Wayne Manor in _years_. The first of them started to wriggle out of the ground. "Heads up!" Tim shouted, grabbing a sword from a suit of armor.

Riku flew past him, Keyblade materializing in his hand in a burst of light and sparkles. The hall was soon filled with fighting Bats, including Bruce, who'd come back with weapons but hadn't had time to dress in the suit.

"This is a losing battle!" Riku shouted. "This world is falling to darkness, we need to evacuate!"

"Is there any way to reverse the fall?" Bruce demanded, punting a Shadow into oblivion.

"No! Not that I know of!"

"Watch it, Drake!" Damian shouted, flying past to drive his sword into a Heartless that had loomed up behind Tim.

"It's getting worse," Tim gasped, watching as stronger Heartless than Shadows started poofing into existence.

"I don't have a ship," Riku hissed in frustration, and thrust out his hand. A smoky black and purple portal materialized. "Sir!" he cried, grabbing Alfred's arm as the butler was cursing, trying to reload his shotgun before a new wave of Heartless reached him. "Come with me, I'll get you to Traverse Town."

"The children first," Alfred said shortly, snapping the last piece into place and raising the weapon again.

A scream pierced the air, high-pitched and anguished like a child dying. Bruce roared and charged at the monster stealing the heart of his youngest son. Alfred's gun swung in that direction but then he wavered in frustration, unable to fire with Bruce in the way.

"ALFRED!" Jason bellowed desperately. Riku swung around and struck a Heartless away from the butler, but it was a powerful one and took a lot of hits and several magic casts to destroy. By the time he looked up again, the hall was thicker than ever with Heartless, and many of the Bats had disappeared, perhaps fallen to darkness. Only Dick and Cass desperately remained fighting, guarding two of their family members in a corner. Alfred had run out of bullets and was now swinging his weapon like a club; Tim was standing motionless and blank-faced...no longer human. A Nobody. He'd lost his heart.

"NO!" Riku cast Thundaga, taking out a whole group of nearby Heartless to earn himself and his allies some breathing room. He dismissed his Keyblade and flung his coat over Alfred, seizing the old man's arm in one hand and grabbing Tim with the other. "Come on!" he called, hauling Alfred and Tim toward the still-open portal.

Dick and Cass covered their escape, but a Gargoyle Warrior thrust its hand into Cass's chest at the threshold and ripped a jewel-like light from her chest. Cass's empty body faded away to another world, and Dick screamed, flinging himself at the Heartless.

"No, Dick!" Riku shouted, blasting off a Firaga from within the corridor, using up the last of his MP. "Get in here!"

"Master Dick!"

"YOU KILLED THEM!" Dick screamed, tears streaming down his face as he seized an entire suit of armor and swung it, sending Heartless flying. More swarmed to take their place and ripped at him all at once. Dick sobbed as his heart rose out of his chest and his body dissolved in black smoke.

Making a quick decision, Riku shut the portal. He was panting in distress as he pulled the remaining Bats along, Tim's wrist limp in his hand and Alfred sounding near tears as he cursed the creatures that had taken his family.

"You should have left me behind, I could have bought them time to escape..."

"I'm sorry, I just grabbed whoever was closest. There's nothing we could have done," Riku said, his chest tight and hot with the shame of his failure. He never should have agreed to come to his friend's home, it felt like it was his fault Tim's family had been attacked.

"We will regroup and then find a way to end this madness once and for all, I _will not_ accept that this is the end of the Wayne family," Alfred said forcefully.

They emerged in a dusky town, looking out of place in the quiet cobblestone streets. "This is Traverse Town," Riku said numbly. "A lot of survivors end up here. Let's find an inn to get Tim settled in, and then we can look and see if...anyone else made it here."

"Master Tim," Alfred said gently, laying a hand on the teen's shoulder. Tim did not respond in any way, simply continued staring blankly ahead.

"He...he's a Nobody now," Riku said, his heart aching. "His heart was taken and turned into a Heartless, there isn't any life left in his body now."

Alfred wrapped his arms around his grandson and held him tightly for a long time. At last he pulled back and carefully tucked Tim under his arm. "You say there should be an inn nearby?"

"Yes." Riku led the way, paid for a room, and escorted Alfred and Tim there. "The hotels make sure to build away from Heartless hotspots," Riku explained, "but anytime you go out, make sure you take a weapon, because you'll often encounter Heartless in the streets."

"I see."

"I'm going to go look around town, I'll have some food sent up. ...Take care of him, okay?"

"Of course."

TBC

A/N: Okay, so I'm thinking that as far as Riku & Tim go, there should be one more chapter of this introductory story arc, an interim series of slice-of-life one-shots, and then one more short story arc. The rest of the family is going to get their own substantial story arc, and there might be either another arc or a one-shot series regarding a certain Keyblade wielder.


	9. Alternate: A Friend in the Attic, Part 3

**_When the Shadows Reach Gotham_** **, a Batman / Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy VII crossover fanfic by Raberba girl**

 **Alternate scenario: A Friend in the Attic - Part 3 (rough draft)**

*If you're reading this on FFN, make sure you don't miss the update of the main story I posted earlier today.

o.o.o

About a week after the Drakes left, Riku started to notice that the days when Tim slept in later than usual were also the days when he seemed fatigued, dragging and spacey despite enthusiastically trying to rally himself every time Riku made an activity suggestion. At last, when Tim fell asleep at the computer while doing schoolwork even though he'd insisted that morning that he'd been perfectly fine, Riku resolved to get to the bottom of the mystery on his own.

He started taking naps during the day so that it would be easier to stay awake at night. (Tim seemed to really appreciate the nap idea, too, though simply because he was so tired.) It paid off on the third night. Riku was lying motionless in bed, thinking idly about his book list for the next time they took the bus to the library, when he felt Tim sit up and quietly get out of bed.

Riku tensed for a moment, then remembered to keep his breathing even and deep. He listened hard as Tim crept almost soundlessly across the room and out the door.

As soon as the latch clicked, Riku got even more silently out of bed and listened until he heard Tim's footsteps retreat. Then he carefully opened the door and moved down the hall.

Peering around the corner, he saw Tim changing into a set of sturdy clothes that he'd pulled out of a bag on the floor beside him. Once Tim was dressed, he went downstairs, briefly pulled a couple of cameras out of the bag to check over them, then heaved the pack onto his back and resolutely left the house, re-arming the security system behind him.

Since the security system would beep if it was disarmed again, Riku was stuck in the house until Tim was out of earshot, but he made sure to take careful note of the direction Tim headed in. He used the time to get dressed for an excursion and stock up on materia and supplies. Then he got the bike he'd been using out of the garage, cast Haste on himself for speed, caught up to Tim, and then began tailing him from a distance.

It was a good thing he had the Time materia, because Tim was on an electric bike. Riku kept running out of MP and having to pedal at a normal speed until his MP recharged enough for him to cast Haste again. He nearly lost Tim a few times, but it was pretty clear that the other boy was making a beeline for the city, and Riku luckily caught sight of him again just before they reached a part of town where the traffic started picking up.

Tim eventually hid his bike in a stranger's unlocked storage shed and continued on foot. Riku, mystified, kept following on his bike, glad that there were soon enough people around to keep himself hidden in the crowd unless Tim happened to look up and pay enough attention to spot him. He wished he'd thought to tie up and cover his distinctive hair.

Tim stopped outside a coffee shop at one point to check his phone, then grinned and rapidly tapped at the screen for a minute before swiping away and continuing to surf more leisurely.

Eventually, a taxi pulled up to the curb. "Hi, Jeannie," Tim said as he got into the back seat and shut the door.

Riku was exasperated. He cast Haste again in order to keep up with the vehicle, which traveled steadily closer to the heart of the city. At some point, as the buildings grew more and more run down and the pedestrians grew more ragged and sketchy, Riku started being catcalled, which alarmed and then angered him. He could handle himself in a fight, particularly against untrained thugs, but any encounter would cost him his chase, and he did _not_ want to be lost and alone in the middle of Gotham City.

Thankfully, the cab stopped and Tim got out just before Riku ran out of MP again. Tim thanked the driver and immediately disappeared into an alley, where he found a service ladder and climbed up to the roof. Riku was forced to abandon his bike in order to continue the pursuit.

Several rooftops later, Riku finally discovered his friend's mission. Tim approached the sounds of fighting, crouched on the edge of a rooftop, and started taking photos. Riku, edging as close as he could get to the side of the roof while remaining hidden behind some kind of electrical box, peered over and saw Batman and Robin on the ground below, beating up a gang of thugs who seemed to have been attempting to rob a bank.

When the fight finally ended, emergency vehicles were on their way, and the Bats had taken off, Tim called another cab. As he was waiting for it, hiding behind a dumpster so as not to attract unwanted attention, Riku realized that he needed to reveal himself now or he'd be stranded. "Tim."

The other boy's head shot up. "R...Riku?"

"What are you _doing_?"

"Uh..."

A long silence passed.

"I had to ditch your bike," Riku finally said. "I don't think I'll be able to find it again."

"It's okay. We'll order another one online; Mother and Father won't notice."

There was another pause. "Tim," Riku finally said, "why are you chasing Batman and Robin around?"

Tim squirmed. "Because...they're cool, and I like...to get pictures of them...and stuff..."

"Why didn't you _tell_ me? This is dangerous, Tim. I can protect you if anything goes wrong."

"I- Because, well..." Tim looked at him anxiously. "I can't tell you who Batman and Robin are."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Tim stared. "Don't you want to know?"

Riku didn't particularly care one way or the other. "Only if you want to tell me."

"No! I mean, I _want_ to, but I can't, it's important to keep their secret. I thought...I just thought you'd be mad at me that I couldn't tell you, and I...don't want..."

Riku sighed. "I don't care who Batman and Robin are. Just take me with you from now on, okay?"

Tim looked so hopeful. "Really? You're not mad?"

"Just that you didn't tell me you were sneaking out alone. But it's okay, I won't be mad if you don't leave me behind."

Tim exhaled in relief. Then he grinned. "I'll show you how I develop my pictures. I take them on actual film, I like it better than digital. But I take digital pictures, too."

"Yeah, I know," Riku said, grinning back. He knew that Tim had a whole collection of photographs of him and their adventures, though he seemed camera shy himself - he always seemed uncomfortable whenever Riku wanted to take a picture of him, or a selfie of the two of them together.

The cab arrived, and Riku was surprised when Tim didn't ask the driver, whom he seemed to know, to take them to his house. Instead, they got dropped off on a seemingly random street, and Tim confidently led Riku up to another rooftop. "Now we're on stakeout," he explained, digging out snacks and bottled juice. "Whenever I lose Batman and Robin, I like to watch the GCPD headquarters, because they come here a lot, sometimes even if the Bat Signal's not on. I've got some good pictures of them, especially Robin, while they're talking to the commissioner."

They waited for over an hour, chatting and snacking. The Signal had been on for twenty minutes when there was a faint whizzing sound, and then two shapes alighted on the GCPD roof. Tim suppressed a squeal of excitement and snatched up his camera.

Riku wanted to laugh, because Batman looked both cool and amusingly dramatic, crouched like an animal above the waiting commissioner with his jagged black cape flowing in the wind. Riku couldn't hear anything that was said, but Tim was happily snapping away.

Riku did laugh right at the end - the commissioner turned away to reach for the Signal's switch, and the Bats instantly fled. Their speed was remarkable; by the time the commissioner straightened up and turned back, the vigilantes were nowhere to be seen on the roof. They were, in fact, swinging away out of sight, but it had been kind of hilarious seeing their mad scramble to get off the roof before anyone saw them (that they knew of). Robin didn't look too odd, since he was a kid, but seeing Batman's undignified hurry had been the best. "Have you ever filmed that?" Riku asked.

"I _should_ ," Tim said fervently. "Next time."

Now that the show was over, they took another cab to the entrance of the neighborhood where Tim had stashed his bike. They had to ride together on the way home, taking turns pedaling whenever the other needed a break. It was nearly 3:00 a.m. by the time they got back to Drake Manor and to bed, and this time, Riku slept in as late as Tim did.

o.o.o.o.o

The next time Riku was summoned back to Midgar, it was more forcefully than before. Tim, his heart pounding, watched from his hiding place as two silver-haired men dragged his friend out of the house. Luckily, they were slow closing the gangway, and Tim managed to sneak aboard their ship before they took off.

The flight was not a long one, but it was nerve-wracking once they landed. Tim crept out of the ship, but soon lost Riku and his brothers in the maze of corridors. There were also fewer places to hide in the sterile, military environment, and Tim was soon caught. The soldiers seemed to have absolutely no idea what to do with him, since he'd been found in a secure location and couldn't simply be released into the city without processing. Tim was locked in a bare holding cell, where he felt very small and helpless.

Finally, the doors whooshed open and a familiar spiky-haired man came in. "Mr. Zack!" Tim exclaimed in surprise and relief.

The SOLDIER smiled at him. "Riku's friend! Tim, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"You're pretty far from home. Did you come here with Riku?"

"Yes..."

Zack held out his hand. "Wanna come with me and see if we can find him?"

"Yes, please," Tim said gratefully, latching onto the man's hand.

It took a long time and a lot of asking, but Zack finally discovered that Riku had been taken to the medical wing for some kind of testing. "Hm. Well, we should be able to see him once he's done, but in the meantime...you wanna try some training with my squad?"

"Yes," Tim said cautiously, simply because he did not want to be separated from the one friendly, recognizable person in this scary place.

Though it turned out that the soldiers in Zack's squad were pretty friendly, too. They good-naturedly teased Tim and did a lot of hair-ruffling and shoulder-patting, and helped him dress in a set of armor that had apparently been originally designed for Riku. "Let's see how you do on an M-M64 run," Zack said with a twinkle in his eye. He led the way to some kind of simulator room, started up the holograms, and then came a couple of hours of what felt like an extremely intense and immersive game of laser tag.

Tim was both keyed up and exhausted by the end of it. Although he was a little leery of the glowing green bottle he was handed afterward, he decided to drink it when he saw everyone else downing their own 'Potions' without hesitation. The liquid was extremely refreshing, and had the added bonus of healing all the cuts and scraps he'd accumulated during the session. "This is really good! It's like those HP balls."

"Yeah, the molecular makeup and restorative effects are nearly identical," Zack said, "which is kind of weird, since we've been manufacturing Potions long before the first known Heartless ever showed up."

"Maybe the people were carrying Potions when they got turned into Heartless, and the Potions turned into HP balls instead of disappearing or getting lost."

"Huh. Maybe," Zack said, looking very thoughtful.

They all went to the communal shower area, where Tim tried not to stare. He'd never had a clear view of a naked adult before, much less a whole room full of them, but no one else seemed to care, so he tried to pretend he didn't care, either, and to not to be shy about getting undressed in public. Zack seemed to notice, anyway, and fetched a pair of shorts that Tim could wear while showering. "Then you can change into a full set of dry clothes afterward."

"Thank you," Tim said, both grateful and hugely embarrassed that he was obvious enough about his discomfort that someone felt the need to coddle him.

"No problem, kiddo. You're a guest, not a soldier, and it's okay to feel uncomfortable with things other people take for granted."

Once they got to Zack's quarters, they found Riku lying on the bed, half-asleep and looking pale and miserable. "Aw, kiddo," Zack said gently, sitting down on the edge and laying a hand on Riku's forehead, under his silkily sweaty bangs. "You okay?"

"No."

"You want some ice cream?"

"...Yes," Riku finally mumbled.

"Okay. Sit tight, I'll get some for all of us. Tim will stay here with you."

The three of them ate ice cream and watched part of a movie together, then Zack had to leave to fulfill some duties. Riku and Tim stayed curled up on his bed, watching the rest of the movie. "What happened?" Tim whispered. "Did someone do something to you?"

"Just some tests. I'll feel better in the morning, I did last time."

"But it hurts now?"

"Not _hurts_ , just...not good." Riku hid his face against Tim's leg. "I hate going to the labs," he said, his voice muffled.

"...I think maybe they shouldn't be allowed to. Like...maybe it's child abuse."

"I don't count as a child, I'm a test subject. Because Mother is Shinra's property and Father is their SOLDIER, so my brothers and I are Shinra's property, too. That's what the law says."

Tim felt his eyes widen. "That's...that's...wrong. You're a person, you're not property."

"I don't feel like a person when they're strapping me down and injecting things into me..."

Tim was starting to feel sick and panicky. He climbed off the bed and crouched down so he could look at his friend's face. "Riku, does Zack think you're property, too?"

"No, Zack is nice. So was Angeal, and a lot of the soldiers. The doctors, though...most of them talk about me like I don't have a brain, even when they're touching me and doing things to me and I'm _right there_. I hate it."

Tim clenched his teeth. "Riku, we have to go back home, except maybe not my house anymore because they know they can find you there. Maybe...maybe Mr. Wa-"

"They can find me anywhere," Riku said wearily. "I have Mother's cells. It doesn't matter where I run, they'll find me."

Tim wanted to cry. "They shouldn't be allowed to hurt you, Riku. They shouldn't be _allowed_."

"I wish I was like you...I wish no one cared about me so that they wouldn't want to hurt me."

Tim really did start crying then, covering his face to try to muffle the sounds. Then Riku started crying, too, and Tim climbed back on the bed to hold him, and they clung to each other until they fell asleep.

o.o.o.o.o

Tim was restless all night, and jumped out of bed the instant a blaring wake-up call came out of the speaker near the ceiling. Zack, who'd slept on a mat on the floor because his bed had been occupied, groaned and pulled a pillow over his head.

"Tim?" Riku called, blinking groggily.

"Riku? Do you feel better?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"We have to go home. We have to go as soon as possible."

Riku seemed lethargic and Zack insisted on feeding them breakfast first, and then he had a training session with his squad and then a short meeting. Finally, though, he was able to fly the boys back to Prime Earth and the mansion, and Tim was never so glad to see Drake Manor in his life.

"Bye, Zack," Riku said, hugging the man.

"See you around, Ri," Zack said, hugging him back. He smiled at Tim, who returned the gesture stiffly. "You okay, Tim?"

"Yes."

"All right. Well, you guys look after each other, okay?"

As soon as they went into the house, Riku went back to sleep on a couch in the living room. Tim went to his father's computer and grimly started looking up child abuse laws. He knew, even before starting, that there was probably nothing a couple of eight-year-olds could do about it when the abused child in question was a citizen of an entirely different world whose powerful legal guardians would fight to keep their grip on him, but researching still made him feel a little better.

TBC

A/N: I'm pretty sure Tim here is younger than he was in canon when he started stalking Batman & Robin, but whatever; this isn't the main story, anyway, so I'll tweak things to fit. ^^;;

It's _possible_ that there might be just one chapter left of this!


End file.
